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
Speaker 1: video on YouTube, subscribe to our channel, and if you
Speaker 1: like what you hear, 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 the vibes around the Arizona
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks have fallen off here over the past couple of days.
Speaker 1: D Backs had won ten out of twelve games after
Speaker 1: their win on Friday, but they lose the final two
Speaker 1: games of this series against the Nationals. Of course, that
Speaker 1: means they lose the series and it also means they
Speaker 1: lose the season series in the process.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for whatever reason, the Nationals seem to always play
Speaker 2: the Diamondbacks quite tough. I think they are now three
Speaker 2: and eight in or last eleven against them. They lost
Speaker 2: the season series, as you said, four games to two,
Speaker 2: and all time they're like over twenty games under five
Speaker 2: hundred against the Nationals, which is that goes back to
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety eight, even when they were the Expos. So
Speaker 2: you know, it's it's been a tough organization for them.
Speaker 2: Hard to say why, but especially lately. You know, where
Speaker 2: the Dbacks have had a better team, you would expect
Speaker 2: them to do better against the Nationals than they have.
Speaker 1: The Diamondbacks offense certainly was not perfect in this series.
Speaker 1: There were some roughed bats here and there. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about that more a little bit later in the show.
Speaker 1: But the key storyline of these last two games, Jack
Speaker 1: certainly was the pitching for the Diamondbacks. They lose the
Speaker 1: finale of this series by a score of ten to seven.
Speaker 1: Of course, Mitch Bratt had a rough one on Saturday,
Speaker 1: gave up five runs in five innings there and on
Speaker 1: Sunday in the finale of this series. It you know,
Speaker 1: Cole Drake certainly was not great. He gave up four
Speaker 1: runs and four innings, but it also wouldn't be totally
Speaker 1: to blame this all on him. The Diamondbacks bullpen was
Speaker 1: unusually not good in this game either. Jonathan Elisaga gave
Speaker 1: up a couple of runs, Brandon Garcia gave up several
Speaker 1: as well. Kevin Ginkle gave up a solo home run late.
Speaker 1: So all in all, just a rough series for the
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks pitching staff. And you know, I think if any
Speaker 1: of us were skeptical about this Washington Nationals offense. I
Speaker 1: think we've all seen kind of the hard way here
Speaker 1: that this Washington Nationals offense is truly everything that the
Speaker 1: numbers say it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I mean, you're over one hundred games in
Speaker 2: and they lead the league in scoring, and they're right
Speaker 2: there at the top and just about every major metric.
Speaker 2: I don't think there was really much doubt that they
Speaker 2: had a very good offense. You know, you just look
Speaker 2: at the players and how they're hitting, and of course
Speaker 2: James Wood and c. J. Abrams are having phenomenal seasons,
Speaker 2: but their surrounding casts a bunch of good hitters, and
Speaker 2: so we just got to see a lot more of
Speaker 2: it up close and personal as far as how good
Speaker 2: the abats were, how aggressive they are when they get
Speaker 2: their pitch to hit, and what they were able to
Speaker 2: do with it. So, you know, that's not surprising at all.
Speaker 2: What's disappointing is, unfortunately, you know, the rookie pitchers aren't
Speaker 2: able to throw strikes at the right times in the
Speaker 2: right places. And that's not surprising their rookies, right, they're
Speaker 2: young pitchers, they're young left handers. But heading into this series,
Speaker 2: you know, when I wrote my series preview over on
Speaker 2: Diamondbacks on SI, you know, I kind of felt like, Okay,
Speaker 2: we're probably going to see a bit of a bounce
Speaker 2: back outing from a Dwarter Rodriguez. I thought they would
Speaker 2: score a little bit more in that first game than
Speaker 2: they managed to do. But they held on and the
Speaker 2: bullpen was great. But yes, yesterday and today, you know,
Speaker 2: we kind of got what we expected, which was the
Speaker 2: best offense in league, beating up on a couple of
Speaker 2: rookie starters.
Speaker 1: The fifth inning was really the big hinge point in
Speaker 1: the finale of this series. Diamondbacks had a four to
Speaker 1: two lead. At that point, things were looking pretty good.
Speaker 1: Cole Drake had you know, sort of let the Nationals
Speaker 1: tie the game a couple of times after the d
Speaker 1: Backs had taken the lead. But then in the fifth
Speaker 1: inning is where things really got a little bit out
Speaker 1: of hand. D Backs again with a four to two
Speaker 1: lead entering the inning, as I said, and yeah, things
Speaker 1: were not great there.
Speaker 2: Jack.
Speaker 1: It all started with Nasim Yunez, the Nationals number nine,
Speaker 1: hit or drawing a walk, which it feels like that's
Speaker 1: oftentimes how big time rallies begin. And then James Wood
Speaker 1: followed that up with a two run home run to
Speaker 1: tie the game. Three batters later, cj. Abrams did what
Speaker 1: he's been doing a whole lot of lately, which has
Speaker 1: hit a two run home run that came against Jonathan Elizaga,
Speaker 1: who had then entered the game at that point, and
Speaker 1: then things just kind of continue to get out of
Speaker 1: hand from there. Brandon Garcia gives up three runs in
Speaker 1: the seventh, Kevin Ginkel gives up another run in the eighth.
Speaker 1: Dbacs did make it a little interesting in the ninth inning.
Speaker 1: They did get the time run on at first base.
Speaker 1: Tyler Locklear represented the winning run with the bases loaded
Speaker 1: in two outs, but unfortunately he grounded out and that
Speaker 1: was the end of this one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you know, when we talk about the bullpen,
Speaker 2: I mean, for all year long, the bullpen's been really good.
Speaker 2: But the fact is is lately not so much. Although
Speaker 2: the bullpen was great on Friday night, if you go
Speaker 2: back to July twentieth, and I'm not sure if you
Speaker 2: have that table up, let's see there it is there
Speaker 2: we go. Okay, so you know, I looked I kind
Speaker 2: of broke this out two ways, which is the previous
Speaker 2: six games to Sunday and then Sunday and then the
Speaker 2: total because obviously Sunday was especially bad and it really
Speaker 2: inflated things. But you know, if you look at their
Speaker 2: previous six games, which includes the excellent Friday work, they
Speaker 2: still had a five two four e er in their
Speaker 2: previous six games out of the bullpen as relievers. And
Speaker 2: then Sunday, of course, was four innings, ten hits, six runs,
Speaker 2: five earned, and that unearned run was due to Brandon
Speaker 2: Garcia's own throwing error. And so you know, over the
Speaker 2: last seven games, the bullpen is really starting to fray
Speaker 2: a bit. We see thirty five hits and twenty six
Speaker 2: and a third innings, We see four home runs, we
Speaker 2: see a six to one five era. The strikeout to
Speaker 2: walk ratio is still pretty good, but you know, they're
Speaker 2: falling behind accounts when they shouldn't be, and they're giving
Speaker 2: up a lot of base hits and giving up some
Speaker 2: home runs. You know, it's not only been a Pulsea
Speaker 2: wall problem. It's kind of we're seeing guys taking turns
Speaker 2: now getting shaky and that may just be workload, you know,
Speaker 2: and getting a little freight at the edges. We know
Speaker 2: that they've been working really hard to try to maneuver
Speaker 2: through what has clearly been a tired bullpen and they're
Speaker 2: just not getting enough innings from the starters to allow
Speaker 2: for that to happen. And no, they still have three
Speaker 2: more games before they have a day off. They got
Speaker 2: to hit into Pittsburgh. So yeah, they have pitching was
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, they got two rookie starters that
Speaker 2: aren't performing and walking too many guys. They got a
Speaker 2: bullpen that's really paying the price for a workload and
Speaker 2: now really starting to fray at the edges. They need
Speaker 2: to make some moves and we're going to talk about that,
Speaker 2: but it's pitching that's driving the concern right now.
Speaker 1: I think at this point my concern level with the
Speaker 1: bullpen is not all that high. You know, you look
Speaker 1: at the eras that these guys have even after this game,
Speaker 1: Like Brandon Garcia is still at a two two eight,
Speaker 1: Kevin Ginkles at a three two five, Jonathan Maliseaga has
Speaker 1: been unreal lately. He's at at two four one, Ryan
Speaker 1: Thompson at a pretty reasonable three point seven to six.
Speaker 1: And you know there are some some runs in those
Speaker 1: past seven games that came at a time where the
Speaker 1: game didn't really matter, like Iildomara Vargas gave up a
Speaker 1: couple runs because the d Bacs had him pitch the
Speaker 1: ninth inning. The other day, Ryan Thompson gave up four
Speaker 1: runs in a game against the Cardinals when the game
Speaker 1: was pretty much out of hand. So not to say
Speaker 1: there isn't some regression happening, I think there clearly is,
Speaker 1: and the workload probably has something to do with that.
Speaker 1: But the starting pitching is really the concern for me
Speaker 1: right now. The fact that the Diamondbacks have two rookie pitchers,
Speaker 1: as you said, in Cole Drake and Mitch Bratt, who
Speaker 1: just do not really look like big league ready starters.
Speaker 1: Mitch Bratt in particular, Jack, I mean, at least cold.
Speaker 1: Drake pounded the zone for the most part in this
Speaker 1: Sunday game. I think his zone rate was fifty five percent.
Speaker 1: I know there were some lapses here and there, like
Speaker 1: the Walkton Nuniez, which isn't great. But Mitch Bratt on Saturday,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of been a trend for him in
Speaker 1: the few winnings that we've seen this season, he was
Speaker 1: just all over the place, and after the game, he
Speaker 1: talked about how he thought, he said a lifetime record
Speaker 1: and walks with five walks, and at least in his
Speaker 1: professional career that was definitely the case. He's never had
Speaker 1: five walks in a game in the majors or in
Speaker 1: the minor leagues. So with Bratt, I think maybe there's
Speaker 1: I'm certainly not giving up on him as a prospect.
Speaker 1: I think the track record there speaks to a guy
Speaker 1: whose command ought to be better than what we've seen,
Speaker 1: but we haven't seen it at all in the big
Speaker 1: leagues at this point. He really has been spraying the
Speaker 1: ball all over the place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's a bit of confirmation bias for me,
Speaker 2: and I want to fully admit that. You know, I
Speaker 2: didn't watch his entire career, and I haven't watched every
Speaker 2: start he made in tripa A this year, but I
Speaker 2: watched at least three or four of them, and it
Speaker 2: just seemed like, Wow, these misses are like, you know,
Speaker 2: armside misses way up and out and you know curveballs,
Speaker 2: spiked it fifty six feet into the dirt, and I
Speaker 2: just saw a lot of that, and yet he would
Speaker 2: still somehow get back in the zone and get it
Speaker 2: out you know, his pitching lines were good, but I did,
Speaker 2: you know, I wasn't seeing even when I was watching
Speaker 2: this minor league starts, I wasn't seeing like pinpoint command,
Speaker 2: Like the pitches that miss are just off the plate,
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. They're non competitive pitches. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: so that had kind of had a little bit of like,
Speaker 2: that's not what I was expecting to see based on
Speaker 2: his reputation before he was even promoted. And then since
Speaker 2: he's been promoted, we've seen more of that non competitive pitches,
Speaker 2: plus just a lot of walks. You know. So he's
Speaker 2: supposed to be a command and control guy who's not
Speaker 2: commanding and controlling the baseball. I'm not saying you can't,
Speaker 2: not saying you won't, not saying that I have the
Speaker 2: definitive understanding of this pitcher. I have not watched enough
Speaker 2: of him, but I want to see that because otherwise
Speaker 2: I don't want to hear about him being a command
Speaker 2: and control guy anymore until he actually shows that he is.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's totally fair. Diamondbacks score seven
Speaker 1: runs in the Sunday games. Certainly the offense is not,
Speaker 1: you know, does not take most of the blame for
Speaker 1: a ten to seven loss, but there are some trends
Speaker 1: with the offense that we wanted to get to. After
Speaker 1: this break, we're going to talk a little catel Marte,
Speaker 1: and then later in the show we're going to dive
Speaker 1: into some trade candidates, get into some actual names here
Speaker 1: for really the first time on our show. So don't
Speaker 1: go anywhere. We'll be back with more right after this. Well,
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Speaker 2: Well Jack.
Speaker 1: As I said before the break, d Backs scored seven
Speaker 1: runs on Sunday, you usually hope that that is enough
Speaker 1: to win a game. And yet I think it is
Speaker 1: time to have a conversation about Kateel Marte because even
Speaker 1: though Ktel's numbers for the year, he's still been an
Speaker 1: above average hitter. He did hit a home run in
Speaker 1: this game, so Admittedly, we're maybe picking a strange one
Speaker 1: to talk about his season, but there were some troubling
Speaker 1: at bats from Katel in this game. In addition to
Speaker 1: the home run, there's one that stood out from the
Speaker 1: very ending of this game. This was in the ninth inning.
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks had the bases loaded and nobody out. It's a
Speaker 1: ten to five ball game at that point, so you're
Speaker 1: just looking to kind of keep the line moving. Nationals
Speaker 1: had just brought in their closer, Clayton Beater, and Katl
Speaker 1: swings at the first pitch. Granted it was a slider
Speaker 1: that was up in the zone, but it was on
Speaker 1: the upper inside corner, not really the type of pitch
Speaker 1: you can do damage on, and Kutel just hit a
Speaker 1: little pop fly on the infield that went for an
Speaker 1: out and kind of hindered the Diamondbacks as they were
Speaker 1: trying to put together a run there a couple of
Speaker 1: innings earlier. This was maybe the real backbreaker. Runner at
Speaker 1: second two outs in the top of the seventh, Gabby
Speaker 1: Moreno had just hit a double count starts three to
Speaker 1: zero with three pitches that are nowhere even close to
Speaker 1: the zone, and then kateel Marte just becomes unglued on
Speaker 1: a three to zero fastball that was down and inside,
Speaker 1: it was not in the zone. He swings and misses,
Speaker 1: kind of looked like he might have tweaked something on
Speaker 1: the swing, which you never loved to see. And then
Speaker 1: he comes back and swings at the next pitch, a
Speaker 1: curveball in the dirt, and he takes strike three, called
Speaker 1: to envy at bat. And at that point he had
Speaker 1: seen five pitches, all of them out of the strike zone.
Speaker 1: And this is all just indicative, of course of the
Speaker 1: season that Katell has had Jack where he is just
Speaker 1: chasing pitches out of the zone, far more than we've
Speaker 1: seen in the past.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, Chris Garagiola I tweeted this out during
Speaker 2: the game. Chris Garagiolo commented on the broadcast, Katell's his
Speaker 2: own worst enemy at times, and that certainly rang true
Speaker 2: to me when I looked at this, you know, and
Speaker 2: I've looked at these numbers before. This is really pretty
Speaker 2: pretty simple, you know. And I want to start off
Speaker 2: by repeating what I said in tweet. It seems harsh
Speaker 2: to be critical of a guy who has two walks
Speaker 2: and a home run today. Okay, So I want to
Speaker 2: acknowledge that. You know, it's he's a phenomenal player. He
Speaker 2: can do amazing things, didn't.
Speaker 1: I think Katell just had the home run, right, I
Speaker 1: think he was one for five. I don't think he
Speaker 1: drew walks in this one.
Speaker 2: If I remember directly, you know what, I misread my
Speaker 2: score sheheet. That's correct. He was one for five, So
Speaker 2: that tweet's wrong, thank you, Jesse.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure.
Speaker 2: But the point, the overwriting point here is the numbers
Speaker 2: on the screen show his chase percentage. That's the percentage
Speaker 2: of pitches that he swings at that are outside the
Speaker 2: strike zone. In twenty twenty three it was twenty four
Speaker 2: point three percent. Twenty twenty four is twenty five point
Speaker 2: nine percent. Twenty twenty five it was twenty four point
Speaker 2: seven percent. In twenty twenty six, it's thirty two point
Speaker 2: three percent chase. In other words, he's increased his chase
Speaker 2: rate by over thirty percent from what it was the
Speaker 2: year before, you know, straight up seven and a half
Speaker 2: percentage points. But that's about a thirty percent increase from
Speaker 2: the year before, and we're just seeing that that completely
Speaker 2: matches the eye test. You know, he's just been swinging
Speaker 2: the balls outside the zone repeatedly, and you know, I'm
Speaker 2: catching a little flak on Twitter. Well, you know, if
Speaker 2: you'd got that hit, if you got a hit on
Speaker 2: that pitch, you know, in the ninth inning, you know,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be saying anything. But think of the context.
Speaker 2: You're down by five runs. The best possible outcome in
Speaker 2: that at bat is a grand Slam homer, and you'd
Speaker 2: still be losing ten to nine. The only way you're
Speaker 2: going to come back from a five run deficit here
Speaker 2: is to move the chain, right. They had just walked
Speaker 2: the bases loaded. Now you got a new pitcher coming
Speaker 2: in and he throws a slider up and in, and
Speaker 2: you're hacking at that pitch. Take a pitch, take a pitch,
Speaker 2: move the chain, grind out in a bat, you know.
Speaker 2: And he just wasn't willing to do any of that
Speaker 2: when he had the other at bet that you highlighted.
Speaker 2: I mean that was with two outs and Gabby on
Speaker 2: second base, you know, an opportunity to drive in a
Speaker 2: run there. You know, maybe that's what he's thinking. I'm
Speaker 2: not you know, some people are calling him selfish. I'm
Speaker 2: not calling him selfish. I'm just saying he's being undisciplined.
Speaker 2: He's been an undisciplined hitter this year, and it showed
Speaker 2: up in the results. I mean, the bottom line is this,
Speaker 2: To tell Marte, the previous couple of seasons was like
Speaker 2: a one you know, op WRC plus or OPS plus hitter, Okay,
Speaker 2: one forty five and one fifty two. This year he's
Speaker 2: one oh six. And earlier in the season the narrative was, well,
Speaker 2: he's hitting the ball hard, you know, he's just having
Speaker 2: bad luck, and that was partially true. But as the
Speaker 2: season's gone on, this chase issue has just reared its
Speaker 2: ugly head over and over and overhead and situationally and
Speaker 2: again it's I mean, he's so mercurial, I mean like
Speaker 2: he'll hit a walk off home run, he'll do amazing things.
Speaker 2: But he's really cutting into his value by being so
Speaker 2: undisciplined this year. And I don't know why he's doing it.
Speaker 2: I don't know what got into his head.
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting with the chase rate. His
Speaker 1: chase rate against lefties this year is right around thirty
Speaker 1: five percent, which is actually very similar to what it's
Speaker 1: been in past years. It was actually higher in twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen at thirty eight point five percent. So we've always
Speaker 1: seen this kind of chase happy version of Katel against
Speaker 1: lefties because he has this lightning quick swing. The bat
Speaker 1: speed is insane, and he can just kind of get
Speaker 1: away with it at times. He certainly has this season.
Speaker 1: His numbers against lefties are still awesome this year. The
Speaker 1: issue is against righty's. His chase strate is thirty one
Speaker 1: point two percent this season, and that is like way
Speaker 1: out of range from where it's been in recent seasons.
Speaker 1: Last year was twenty three point six percent, twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three and twenty twenty four it was in the twenty
Speaker 1: one percent range. So that's an enormous, enormous difference in
Speaker 1: chase against righty's and generally that's been Katel's slightly weaker side,
Speaker 1: where he needs to work counts and get a good
Speaker 1: pitch to hit more so than he does when batting
Speaker 1: right handed, and of course Jack I mean this kind
Speaker 1: of manifests itself in the on base percentage. I know
Speaker 1: there's been a little bit of bad luck for Katel
Speaker 1: this year and this number probably could be a little higher,
Speaker 1: but as OBP is three h seven in twenty twenty six,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's just straight up below average. I mean,
Speaker 1: you look at where it was last season three seventy six,
Speaker 1: the year before three seventy two. It's the lowest on
Speaker 1: base percentage that Katel has ever had as a member
Speaker 1: of the Diamondbacks. The only time his OBP in the
Speaker 1: majors has ever been lower was twenty sixteen, when he
Speaker 1: was with the Mariners and still a very very young
Speaker 1: player coming up in the league. So it really has
Speaker 1: been uncharacteristic for a guy who has made his living
Speaker 1: against right handed pitching, really seeing pitches and working counts,
Speaker 1: and just hasn't happened this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again, I don't know why. I don't know
Speaker 2: what's up with him. You know, I'm not going to
Speaker 2: try to psychoanalyze him. I'm just saying this is the
Speaker 2: fact he's chasing like crazy, obviously more so against right
Speaker 2: handed pitching, and it's resulted in a low OBP and
Speaker 2: a one oh six WRC plus and you know, he's
Speaker 2: just not and most of that has come out of
Speaker 2: the leadoff spot, whereas first batter of the game he
Speaker 2: was hardly getting on base at all. You know, his
Speaker 2: better when all those times batting leadoff, most of us better.
Speaker 2: Our batch came second, third, fourth, a bat of the game.
Speaker 1: Later, and that takes us to an interesting stat that
Speaker 1: you tweeted out earlier. This was entering the game today.
Speaker 1: You tweeted out the Diamondbacks one through four hitters have
Speaker 1: a one to oh three WRC plus this season. League
Speaker 1: average is one to ten that ranks twenty third in
Speaker 1: the league. And then the d Backs five through nine
Speaker 1: hitters this season have an eighty five WRC plus that
Speaker 1: also ranks twenty third in the league. League average is
Speaker 1: ninety one. And I guess that kind of goes against
Speaker 1: the narrative that some people have that like, the Diamondbacks
Speaker 1: one through four hitters are great and the depth of
Speaker 1: the lineup just isn't there. We've kind of seen this
Speaker 1: kind of those numbers sort of collide together in recent
Speaker 1: days and now the Diamondbacks are just sort of a
Speaker 1: lost the board, a below average offensive team.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know, and if you want to think
Speaker 2: about who are the players, because this is one through
Speaker 2: four and not just one through three, right, and Gabby
Speaker 2: doesn't have all his at bats in the fourth spot.
Speaker 2: He was moved up from a lot and some of
Speaker 2: the he's only got two hundred and thirty something played appearances,
Speaker 2: you know, batting in either the third or fourth spot
Speaker 2: in order, and Nolan Ronado had a significant over one
Speaker 2: hundred plate appearances one hundred and sixteen I think, batting fourth,
Speaker 2: and he had eighty w RC plus. And Adrian deuck
Speaker 2: Castillo is a disaster batting fourth. He had about eighty
Speaker 2: played appearances and he had a thirty WRC plus. So
Speaker 2: when we talk about cleanup spot, I mean, obviously, you know,
Speaker 2: Dell and Nolan contributed to some of the poor numbers
Speaker 2: when we look at one through four overall, but Heraldo
Speaker 2: Padomo batting either first, second, third, or fourth has a
Speaker 2: ninety two WRC plus. It Tell's about one hundred and four,
Speaker 2: Gabby's hund forty three, Corbyn's in the one twenties. But
Speaker 2: you know, even those four guys alone, because of the
Speaker 2: underperformance from Katel and Perdomo this year, which has been
Speaker 2: fairly extreme compared to what was expected of them, has
Speaker 2: really hurt the top half of the order. A lot
Speaker 2: of that's July, but not all of it. I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously July's has been a disaster, especially for Catel and Corbin,
Speaker 2: but overall, you know, the Dbacks are not getting the
Speaker 2: production out of either the top or the bottom of
Speaker 2: the order that they should have got somewhat better out
Speaker 2: of the bottom half of the order, but then the
Speaker 2: bottom the top half kind of tanked, so they've never
Speaker 2: been able to really get both sides of it going
Speaker 2: at the same time.
Speaker 1: So where does this leave the Diamondbacks and the standings.
Speaker 1: We've got it for you here. I believe the Phillies
Speaker 1: are still have not played their Sunday game as of
Speaker 1: the time of US recording, but all of these other
Speaker 1: all of these other teams have played. The Marlins lost
Speaker 1: their two consecutive game, which is wild to the San
Speaker 1: Diego Padres. The Padres now are two games behind the
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks for that third wild card spot. As a result
Speaker 1: of that, the Cardinals lost, they are a game and
Speaker 1: a half out, and then the Nationals of course won.
Speaker 1: The Pirates won on Sunday as well, both of those
Speaker 1: teams just one game out of that third wild card spot,
Speaker 1: and of course Diamondbacks playing the Pittsburgh Pirates out in
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh over the next few days, and we'll talk a
Speaker 1: little bit more about that series later in the show.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go ahead and dive into some trade deadline talk.
Speaker 1: We've got a list. Jack put together a list of
Speaker 1: five rental starting pitchers and five rental position players that
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks could possibly target at the trade deadline, So
Speaker 1: don't go anywhere. We're going to dive in on the
Speaker 1: other side of this break.
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Speaker 1: We are back here on Snake's territory. We really appreciate
Speaker 1: all of you being here with us, if you haven't already,
Speaker 1: really helps us out. If you would drop a like
Speaker 1: on this video, even though you might not be so
Speaker 1: happy with the show headline and the Diamondbacks performance over
Speaker 1: the weekend. It still really helps us out if you
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Speaker 1: at it, and if you're joining us on Apple Podcasts
Speaker 1: or Spotify also really helps us out if you would
Speaker 1: leave us a five star review. Well, Jack, I know
Speaker 1: you've been working on putting together a list of potential
Speaker 1: trade targets for the Diamondbacks. I'm going to set the
Speaker 1: table for this conversation with some context here. These quotes
Speaker 1: that we've pulled are from a recent story from Nick
Speaker 1: Pacoro over at the Arizona Republic, and this is helpful
Speaker 1: context as we talk about this stuff. Nick writes, the
Speaker 1: diamondbacks surprise signing of right hander Zach Gallen early in
Speaker 1: spring training moved their payroll into unexpected territory within range
Speaker 1: of Baseball's first luxury tax threshold. According to a source,
Speaker 1: the club is within ten million dollars of the first threshold,
Speaker 1: which likely means certain players won't be options prior to
Speaker 1: August third unless their teams are willing to pay down
Speaker 1: their salaries. And Jack, as we think about what rental
Speaker 1: players the Diamondbacks could actually chase after. That is good
Speaker 1: to know because if you've got less than ten million
Speaker 1: dollars to play around with, I don't think Derek Scuball
Speaker 1: is going to be a member of the diamond Back
Speaker 1: anytime soon.
Speaker 2: Well, and I just want to, you know, tack on
Speaker 2: a conversation we had on our previous show where I
Speaker 2: was looking at spot track and Roster Resource and they
Speaker 2: had between two and in twenty six and two and
Speaker 2: then thirty one million attributed to the Diamondbacks payroll. The
Speaker 2: CBT number is two forty four, and so I estimated
Speaker 2: it would be twelve to seventeen million, depending on which
Speaker 2: number you believe. But apparently the DBAX number is significantly
Speaker 2: higher than either of what they have because if they
Speaker 2: have less than ten, that means that their payroll is
Speaker 2: actually over you know, two hundred and thirty four million
Speaker 2: at the moment, so uh, you know, maybe it's two
Speaker 2: thirty five, two thirty six, you know, less than ten,
Speaker 2: could be five, could be seven, could be eight or nine,
Speaker 2: we don't know, but less than ten is less than ten.
Speaker 2: So that's that's a significant number and a significant limitation.
Speaker 2: And from the way next reporting it, we kind of
Speaker 2: debated this point a little bit last time. I think
Speaker 2: it's fairly clear that the team is very intent on
Speaker 2: not going over that number. Never say never, but it
Speaker 2: looks like they're pretty intent on not doing that. The
Speaker 2: other thing I just want to say real quickly before
Speaker 2: we dive into the list is, in my view, in
Speaker 2: my opinion, because of the threat of a lockout, I'm
Speaker 2: sitting here thinking like, Okay, what if a lockout takes
Speaker 2: away a third or half of next season. If you're
Speaker 2: trading for a guy with this year and one year
Speaker 2: of control, well you're probably going to because they're end
Speaker 2: They're likely to end up negotiating that player to the
Speaker 2: players to receive the same service time. And so guys
Speaker 2: that are going to be free agents at the end
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty seven are still going to be free
Speaker 2: agents at the end of twenty twenty seven. I mean,
Speaker 2: everything's negotiable, but that's like none of these players are
Speaker 2: going to vote to push out their free agency another year, right,
Speaker 2: So that's just not going to happen. So when you
Speaker 2: talk about getting controllable players, to me, that's a pretty
Speaker 2: big potential negative. Now you could just say I have
Speaker 2: confidence that we won't lose games. They'll figure it out
Speaker 2: or go up to the last minute. But that's a
Speaker 2: big risk to take when you're looking at the potential
Speaker 2: for giving away prospects and you know, really pretty good
Speaker 2: players that it's going to take to get a player
Speaker 2: with one to two years of control, when you might
Speaker 2: lose half that half a year. And meanwhile, the other
Speaker 2: team has your prospect that's still developing in the minor
Speaker 2: leagues and you never really lost any major league time
Speaker 2: from him. So to me, that's a pretty big impediment
Speaker 2: for going at that route. And I think that the
Speaker 2: safest route for the Diamondbacks in this situation is the
Speaker 2: rental market. And it's a little contrary to what Mike
Speaker 2: said because the rental market to him sounded like an afterthought, like, oh,
Speaker 2: we might do a challenge trade. I'd like to get
Speaker 2: controllable players, you know, But if the players on the
Speaker 2: field show me that they're ready to compete and you know,
Speaker 2: and prove to me that I need to do this,
Speaker 2: then sure I can be more a little bit aggressive
Speaker 2: and just go after rental players. Well, I think that
Speaker 2: should be a starting point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that the way the Diamondbacks perform
Speaker 1: over the next week is still important because if you know,
Speaker 1: if they slip a couple games in the standings, then
Speaker 1: if you're Mike, you're maybe asking, like, all right, am
Speaker 1: I really willing to trade like a pretty solid package
Speaker 1: of prospects for a starting pitcher that I'm just going
Speaker 1: to have for two months? You know, you have to
Speaker 1: really decide that this team is worth pushing the chips in,
Speaker 1: and it's it's important for this team to play well,
Speaker 1: especially against Pittsburgh over these next few days. To dive
Speaker 1: into the list, here, Jack, you've got five. As usually,
Speaker 1: you have a lovely table for us where we can
Speaker 1: see all of all of their stats. I'll go ahead
Speaker 1: and just list these guys out and then we can
Speaker 1: start at the top. We've got Robbie Ray of the
Speaker 1: San Francisco Giants, Clay Holmes of the New York Mets,
Speaker 1: who does have a player option for twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 1: He is not likely to exercise that, but is worth noting.
Speaker 1: Kevin Gosman of the Toronto Blue Jays is here, Tyler
Speaker 1: Mallley of the San Francisco Giants, and then Brady Singer
Speaker 1: of the Cincinnati Reds and as another caveat here, certainly
Speaker 1: there are other starting pitchers who could be available. We
Speaker 1: just saw Foster Griffin look really good against the Diamondbacks.
Speaker 1: I think totally possible that the Nationals make him available,
Speaker 1: but we don't really know yet, and so the focus
Speaker 1: for right now is on guys that we are very
Speaker 1: confident will be available. I think all of these teams
Speaker 1: are are pretty safe, pretty safe as sellers at this point.
Speaker 1: And I guess we'll start at the top here. Jack
Speaker 1: Robbie Ray familiar name. He's making six point nine million
Speaker 1: dollars from the trade deadline through the end of the season,
Speaker 1: so that's about the amount of money that you need
Speaker 1: to take on there. He's got a three three four
Speaker 1: ERA this season in one hundred and ten innings, but
Speaker 1: as we can see here, the peripherals not quite as promising.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in Robbie's case, you know, Jesse was the one
Speaker 2: that pointed it out to me that, you know, his
Speaker 2: fastball just isn't quite what it was. But he's an
Speaker 2: experienced thirty four year old left hander who the Dbacs
Speaker 2: have a lot of familiality with, and he's familiar with
Speaker 2: this organization of course, so you know there there could
Speaker 2: be something workable, but the Giants would have to take
Speaker 2: about two three million of that payroll. I mean, there's
Speaker 2: no way the Dbacks can afford to pay Robby Ray
Speaker 2: seven million dollars, right Maybe they could pay him three or.
Speaker 1: Four Yeah, yeah, I don't just given the underlying numbers here,
Speaker 1: the four six six FIP, the four nine to two
Speaker 1: x FIP, I don't know if any team would would
Speaker 1: be comfortable taking on all that money. Maybe possible, but
Speaker 1: definitely something that could factor in from the d Backs perspective.
Speaker 1: Clay Holmes is probably the most attractive name on this list.
Speaker 1: He has a two to three nine ERA this season
Speaker 1: in fifty three innings. The underlying numbers here are pretty
Speaker 1: good as well. He is the ground ball specialist of
Speaker 1: all ground ball specialists. That's been a big part of
Speaker 1: his game for a while, a fifty five percent ground
Speaker 1: ball rate this year. The challenge with him is that
Speaker 1: he is on the injured list right now. He had
Speaker 1: a fractured fibula back in May because of a comebacker.
Speaker 1: Pretty rough injury there, but he's on his way back
Speaker 1: and I have a feeling there will be a lot
Speaker 1: of suitors for Clay Holmes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Holmes has already thrown one rehab game. He went
Speaker 2: two and a thirds inning, so he had three updowns,
Speaker 2: he threw fifty one pitches. He's going to go again
Speaker 2: on the twenty eighth, and Andy Green of the Mets
Speaker 2: said that Clay Holmes will be available to return to
Speaker 2: the major league roster after that next rehab start, So
Speaker 2: he'll probably get four updowns sixty something pitches in his
Speaker 2: next outing, and then with the ability to go five
Speaker 2: updowns and seventy plus pitches, they would bring him back
Speaker 2: to the majors. So the timing on that means that
Speaker 2: that next outing would be after the trade deadline. If
Speaker 2: he's still in New York met then he'll pitch for them.
Speaker 2: But you know, know, if his next rehab outing looks good,
Speaker 2: and I bet there'll be a lot of scouts there
Speaker 2: seeing what he looks like, then you know he'll certainly
Speaker 2: be a much desired pitcher. He's only owed three point
Speaker 2: eight million from August fourth onward. I definitely think that
Speaker 2: he's somebody that is going to be sought after. And
Speaker 2: then the next guy on the list was Kevin Golsman,
Speaker 2: now Kevin golfman's you know, the whole Toronto Blue Jays
Speaker 2: team is having a bad year. And he's got a
Speaker 2: four or five one ERA and one hundred and sixteen innings,
Speaker 2: but his FIP and x FIP or a run lower
Speaker 2: or almost a run lower three six eight and three
Speaker 2: eight seven. He's still got excellent strikeout to walk ratios.
Speaker 2: He's just been giving up a little bit more home
Speaker 2: runs than he usually does twenty four percent, strikeout, seven
Speaker 2: percent walk, one point two home runs per nine. He's
Speaker 2: owed six point six million dollars from August fourth onward.
Speaker 2: Here Again, the Diamondbacks probably need the Blue Jays to
Speaker 2: pick up at least a couple million of that, and
Speaker 2: there's going to be other teams out there that are
Speaker 2: looking for starting pitch. So if you're looking for, you know,
Speaker 2: just to add on here, I mean, the other teams
Speaker 2: absorbing all of that salary would not have to give
Speaker 2: as good a prospect the Diamondbacks. If they can't take
Speaker 2: all the salary, then they're going to have to give
Speaker 2: up a better prospect to get there. The last two
Speaker 2: names on the list are basically innings eaters who are
Speaker 2: not having very good seasons. Tyler Mallley's got a five
Speaker 2: to three one ERA, although his peripherals of FIP and
Speaker 2: x FIP are a bit lower at four to five
Speaker 2: to two and four to two three. He's giving up
Speaker 2: a lot of home runs two and he's walking more
Speaker 2: guys than usually get from him nine point two percent.
Speaker 2: Grady Singer seems that you know, he's come across to
Speaker 2: our radar time and time again over the years when
Speaker 2: you think about somebody that could be a starting pitcher
Speaker 2: for you, again, he's an innings eater. He's got a
Speaker 2: four or five three ERA, pitching in a very home
Speaker 2: run friendly ballpark where he's allowed one point eight home
Speaker 2: runs per nine. But you know, Chase Field and Great
Speaker 2: American Ballpark are not the same place. Maybe Singer would
Speaker 2: fare better in Chase Field with some young, fast outfielders
Speaker 2: and bigger dimensions. So you know, if he can keep
Speaker 2: the ball in the ballpark at Chase Field, he might
Speaker 2: be a surprisingly good addition for the Diamondbacks. Certainly a
Speaker 2: guy with experience, I could give him innings for me.
Speaker 2: This is not only about navigating your way through the
Speaker 2: rest of the season. I mean, we're pretty confident that
Speaker 2: Soroka is going to come back soon, you know, and
Speaker 2: then at some point, you know, maybe Gallon comes back,
Speaker 2: maybe Corman Burn's come back, maybe Ryan Nelson comes back,
Speaker 2: or maybe he goes to the bullpen. But you can't
Speaker 2: really count on any of those guys. And you really
Speaker 2: need two right now. You need two pitchers from whoever
Speaker 2: you pick up at the trade deadline, plus you're returning
Speaker 2: starters to actually be able to step into rotation. But
Speaker 2: think about the postseason two. You know, who's going to
Speaker 2: start Game three or four, especially if you manage to
Speaker 2: make it to the division series. Who's going to start
Speaker 2: for game four for you in a division series? So
Speaker 2: that's why I'm thinking about like a guy like a
Speaker 2: Gusman or Holmes or Robbie Ray, like somebody with some gravitas,
Speaker 2: Like okay, I could put that guy on the mound
Speaker 2: in a playoff game in game four and give it
Speaker 2: a shot.
Speaker 1: Or the DBACS could just do a bullpen game again,
Speaker 1: you know, worked against the Phillies. Just just throwing that
Speaker 1: out there. No, they should, they should do that. I
Speaker 1: think where I land on this is I have a
Speaker 1: hard time seeing Mike Hazen push the chips in on
Speaker 1: a clay Holmes, maybe even on a Kevin Gosman. The
Speaker 1: more attractive rentals in this market, I think are going
Speaker 1: to be quite expensive. I think back to twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: a decision that I think Mike Kyson later regretted, but
Speaker 1: he apparently was asked for Brandon Foi for Lucas Giolito,
Speaker 1: and at the time that was it was a good
Speaker 1: thing he did not do that. Brandon Fought wound up
Speaker 1: pitching quite well in the post season for the Diamondbacks,
Speaker 1: and that was a really big asking price for, you know,
Speaker 1: two months of a solid but not elite starter in
Speaker 1: Lucas Giolito. And I think if you're Mike Hazen and
Speaker 1: you're looking at the roster you have right now, I'm
Speaker 1: just not sure that the talent is here to warrant
Speaker 1: going all in on this season, at least to that level.
Speaker 1: I just think realistically this team seems more in the
Speaker 1: middle than at the top. Certainly that's what the standings say,
Speaker 1: and I just have a hard time seeing Hazen be
Speaker 1: that aggressive. What I could maybe see is to two
Speaker 1: different options. One is you get at Tyler Mattley, you
Speaker 1: get a maybe Brady Singer is in this category two,
Speaker 1: a rental that like isn't gonna cost much because the
Speaker 1: pitcher just flat out isn't all that great and very
Speaker 1: well could get pushed out of the rotation if the
Speaker 1: d Backs get enough guys back from injury. But maybe
Speaker 1: that wouldn't that wouldn't be terrible because you wouldn't have
Speaker 1: to give up that much to get them. The other
Speaker 1: option I could see, which I don't think is likely,
Speaker 1: but we know Mike Haysn would love to do it.
Speaker 1: It's Redebt Mers, It's Jose Soriano, It's you know, one
Speaker 1: of those bigger name, controllable starting pitchers that we know
Speaker 1: Mike Hasn is always chasing after. And I have a
Speaker 1: feeling he's going to land in one of those two camps.
Speaker 1: And certainly that's not a guarantee that the Dbacks are
Speaker 1: going to land a starter, but I think it will
Speaker 1: look like one of those two things if it does happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or I'm just throwing it out there. Would you
Speaker 2: be willing to part with David Hagman and another starter
Speaker 2: maybe in Ashton? Is he to get to read school here?
Speaker 2: Maybe try to get and maybe try to get you know,
Speaker 2: I mean if you're going to talk to me about
Speaker 2: redebt mers. That's going to be really expensive. So you know,
Speaker 2: the one thing I'm thinking of also is they probably
Speaker 2: should make some kind of offer to the Tigers that's
Speaker 2: substantial to force the Dodgers to pay a higher price,
Speaker 2: because the Dodgers are going to get to Schooble.
Speaker 1: That's fair. If nothing else is to drive up the
Speaker 1: price for the Dodgers, you might as well just you know,
Speaker 1: throw demitriro Croissants his name in there or something, just
Speaker 1: for good measure.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, look, I don't know what the right offer.
Speaker 2: I know that from reading today and reading what about
Speaker 2: Nightingale wrote, you know, the Tiger is probably looking for pitching.
Speaker 2: You know, maybe you give Mitch Bratt, who's got at
Speaker 2: least some major league experience, or Cole Drake one of
Speaker 2: those two guys, plus you know, a pitching prospect like
Speaker 2: Hageman who's got some pretty high perceived upside. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's a lot to pay for two months of touring school.
Speaker 2: But that's that's a push your chips into the middle
Speaker 2: type of move, right, I Mean, that's like, okay, let's
Speaker 2: just go for this. So if they did want to
Speaker 2: go for it. That's what that would look like. I,
Speaker 2: you know, probably our prospect towns and and uh, you
Speaker 2: know amongst our listeners are throwing something at their computer
Speaker 2: screens right now as they're watching this, or smashing their
Speaker 2: phone on the table.
Speaker 1: I mean, my honest opinion on that is, I don't
Speaker 1: think that gets it done. I think David Hageman is
Speaker 1: a well regarded pitching prospect, but I don't think he
Speaker 1: gets you, Trek Skoogle. I think other teams are going
Speaker 1: to be able to offer more major league ready, compelling
Speaker 1: starting pitching talent, and Mitch brad unfortunately, from what we've
Speaker 1: seen his past few outings is really the only outings
Speaker 1: he has in the majors. I don't think he's going
Speaker 1: to be that guy to entice them either, but hey,
Speaker 1: you never know, maybe it's possible. Let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: switch over to the hitting side of things, Jack. I
Speaker 1: know you had five names here as well that you
Speaker 1: wrote about over at Arizona Diamondbacks on SI. We've talked
Speaker 1: about Nathaniel Lowe several times on the show. First base
Speaker 1: DH left handed hitter, you know, one fifteen ish WRC
Speaker 1: plus has an eight hundred ohps this year or something
Speaker 1: right around that. I think we've covered him pretty well
Speaker 1: at this point. I guess the one other thing I
Speaker 1: would say is he's more of a DH than a
Speaker 1: first baseman. First base metrics are not great there, so
Speaker 1: that would be something to keep in mind with him.
Speaker 1: The next name you have on your list, which I
Speaker 1: think we have touched on a little bit but not
Speaker 1: a whole lot, is Luisa Rise of the San Francisco Giants.
Speaker 1: The bat is certainly attractive, there's no question there. But
Speaker 1: where's he going to play?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Well, in Arise's case, I mean, look, he could
Speaker 2: either split some he could split some time with Kutel
Speaker 2: at second base and then also take some reps at
Speaker 2: first In DH, I know he stated a preference to
Speaker 2: stay at second base, but he doesn't have a no
Speaker 2: trade clause, you know, and if you want to go
Speaker 2: to a playoff team, then have a chance to get
Speaker 2: your at bets and hit near the top of the
Speaker 2: order a Dembacks or a team that could offer him that.
Speaker 2: You know, he's still got the elite backed ball skills
Speaker 2: and he's really good at runners in scoring position. As always,
Speaker 2: He's batting three forty four statcas says he's plus nine.
Speaker 2: Fielding run value DRS. Defensive run saves has zero, so
Speaker 2: you know he's plus five.
Speaker 1: He's either the best defender in baseball or completely average,
Speaker 1: one of the two.
Speaker 2: This is why I average them, folks. He'll be owed
Speaker 2: another three point six million from the trade deadline on,
Speaker 2: so it's affordable. It's in the range of what they
Speaker 2: could pay for. You know, it's just a matter are
Speaker 2: you willing to bring in a player who may not
Speaker 2: be all that happy about not playing second base all
Speaker 2: the time. That's really the only downside there, and the
Speaker 2: fact that you have to trade a prospect to a
Speaker 2: divisional rival.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Luisa Rise is going to be a popular commodity.
Speaker 1: He's one of the few valuable players that we pretty
Speaker 1: much know is going to be traded as long as
Speaker 1: he stays healthy, Diamondbacks would not be alone in his market.
Speaker 1: There's three other names on the list here. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna lie. I don't love any of them, but the
Speaker 1: first one is fun. It's Dalton varshow old friend from
Speaker 1: the Toronto Blue Jays of var show this season slashing
Speaker 1: two forty three three zero six three eighty two a
Speaker 1: ninety two WRC plus. He of course bats left handed,
Speaker 1: plays a very good defensive center field. It's not a
Speaker 1: slam dunk jack. He would not be. You know, he
Speaker 1: does have some power, but he's a below average hitter
Speaker 1: all together. Certainly be on base percentage. You're not expecting
Speaker 1: a ton there, but it would be fun for the
Speaker 1: vibes and the defense of course.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, look, you know Dalton varshow last year
Speaker 2: had twenty homers in two hundred and seventy seven at bats.
Speaker 2: When he came back. I think he had a really
Speaker 2: bad hamstring Industry in injury. If I'm not mistaken, I
Speaker 2: think it was a hamstring. But he came back and
Speaker 2: he hit twenty homers in two hundred and seventy seventy
Speaker 2: one played appearances. Right, he had a one twenty OPS
Speaker 2: plus for his career. He's a ninety eight OPS plus hitter.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's a league hitter with you know, lower
Speaker 2: obp who has some pop and left handed bat that
Speaker 2: can hit home runs against right handed pitching, and uh,
Speaker 2: you know that could potentially replace a Max Kepler in
Speaker 2: the lineup, right, Like, if you're looking for a guy
Speaker 2: that left handed has some power, that's that's a Max
Speaker 2: Kepler profile, more or less offensively with better even better
Speaker 2: defense in the outfield. You know, pretty much if you
Speaker 2: bring him in by default, dald Varsher goes out to
Speaker 2: center field and he's your center fielder, and he can
Speaker 2: push the Towers and the Waltsmiths of the world over
Speaker 2: to the corners. So you know, he's it's possibility. I'm
Speaker 2: not saying it's the best option, but it's an option,
Speaker 2: and there aren't a lot of them out there. The
Speaker 2: other thing about var Show is he'd be owed about
Speaker 2: three million dollars UH to give or take from the
Speaker 2: trade deadline on the next guy I talked about it,
Speaker 2: By the way, I wrote an article about this on
Speaker 2: Diamondbacks on S I was George Springer. Now, George Springer's
Speaker 2: getting old, long in the tooth, and he's having a
Speaker 2: down year. He's sitting two twenty six with a six
Speaker 2: to ninety six ops. That's what it was a couple
Speaker 2: days ago when I wrote the article. Ten homers, but
Speaker 2: it was only one year removed from a bounce back
Speaker 2: season where he hit thirty two homers and drove in
Speaker 2: eighty four runs. You know, the thing about Springer he's
Speaker 2: dhing now, he's not even playing outfield. He's right handed,
Speaker 2: so he's not really a good fit there. But the
Speaker 2: one thing about Singer, that Springer that really attracts me
Speaker 2: his twenty three career postseason homers in three hundred and
Speaker 2: eighty four played appearances, including three last year in the ALCS,
Speaker 2: four overall in the playoffs. This guy has played on
Speaker 2: the big stage and he knows how to get it
Speaker 2: done in big moments. He's just had a knack for
Speaker 2: doing that. And if you are bringing in a rental
Speaker 2: then maybe that's what you're hoping for to catch you know,
Speaker 2: for a guy like that to catch fire and help
Speaker 2: you in the postseason.
Speaker 1: George Springer, I will throw out there, has two hits
Speaker 1: in five of his last seven games and has an
Speaker 1: eight sixty seven ops in the month of July. So
Speaker 1: he really struggled early in the season, but his June
Speaker 1: numbers were decent. His ops there was seven thirty eight,
Speaker 1: and in July he just seems to be getting hotter
Speaker 1: and hotter. So I do think that's interesting, you know,
Speaker 1: is he going to be the George Springer from last
Speaker 1: season who was one of the best players in baseball,
Speaker 1: probably not, but maybe you could catch lightning in a bottle,
Speaker 1: assuming that the Blue Jays are willing to pay down
Speaker 1: some of the money there.
Speaker 2: Right, he's owed over seven million dollars, I think, so
Speaker 2: you know, probably you know Dbacks would again need him
Speaker 2: to take down you know, two or three million of that.
Speaker 1: The last name on the list is Lane Thomas of
Speaker 1: the Kansas City Royals. Thomas is totally fine one oh
Speaker 1: seven op plus two thirty three, three thirty three ninety
Speaker 1: seven slash line. He's a guy we've talked about in
Speaker 1: the past, is a trade target for the Diamondbacks. The
Speaker 1: challenge here is you kind of wish he hit left handed?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean for me, Thomas, he has a higher
Speaker 2: floor obviously than Walshman and twa. You know, you're really
Speaker 2: only going to should only play him on the corners.
Speaker 2: He's playing a lot of center field for the Royals,
Speaker 2: but he's bad in center field minus nine in however
Speaker 2: many games, you know. And he's been more or less
Speaker 2: over the last I mean, his peak season was twenty
Speaker 2: three yet twenty eight homers had a one to fifteen
Speaker 2: ops plus and since then he's been about a league
Speaker 2: average hitter. Give or take a league average right handed
Speaker 2: batter who's more or less relegated to the corners. Yes,
Speaker 2: he'd probably bring some stability or a higher floor than
Speaker 2: some of the young rookie players that the Dbacks have
Speaker 2: been playing. But I don't think the difference is there
Speaker 2: to warrant doing this. I'd rather just let Walshmant and
Speaker 2: Tower play and you know, for that ten points or
Speaker 2: whatever difference, maybe even twenty of WRC plus. I want
Speaker 2: to see if those guys can get better. There's value
Speaker 2: in that.
Speaker 1: I think if you're feeling underwhelmed by the names that
Speaker 1: we've brought up here, very understandable, some of these guys
Speaker 1: are like, is that player even good?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: But I think that just takes us back to the standings,
Speaker 1: and this is where things are stand in the National
Speaker 1: League right now. I mean even the Cincinnati Reds. I
Speaker 1: mean they're five games out. After winning today, I still
Speaker 1: think they're going to sell, but I don't know. Maybe
Speaker 1: if they get hot in the next few days, maybe
Speaker 1: that would encourage them to stand pat. I don't know
Speaker 1: what that's going to look like. And the American League
Speaker 1: is in a similar situation right now, where there's a
Speaker 1: few teams at the bottom, like the Jewels and the
Speaker 1: A's and the Royals and probably the Blue Jays. Like
Speaker 1: you think those teams are going to sell, but.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Like Tigers Orioles, Astros, Twins, it's really hard to say
Speaker 1: what those teams are going to do.
Speaker 2: Right now. Tigers are only three and a half out, yeah,
Speaker 2: Orioles are two and a half out. Yeah, Astros are
Speaker 2: two out. That's from the wild card. And then like
Speaker 2: you know, don't forget to look at the divisional standings
Speaker 2: over there too, right, I mean, the Astros are two
Speaker 2: games out of the division of the AL West.
Speaker 1: You know, they're fifty two and fifty five. They're two
Speaker 1: games out of the division. Welcome to the AL West.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. The Tigers are six out of the Central.
Speaker 2: They're probably still looking at wild card or bust there.
Speaker 2: And of course the Orioles are out of it too.
Speaker 2: But you know, the point is is that our list
Speaker 2: was from I mean, I was actually pushing the envelope
Speaker 2: to expand it to eight teams because the Blue Jays
Speaker 2: and the Reds are not confirmed sellers. There's really only
Speaker 2: six confirmed. Like this team's so bad they would have
Speaker 2: to be absolutely off their rocker not to sell.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wouldn't want to be Mike Cason right now.
Speaker 1: I can say that it'd be kind of interesting. I'd
Speaker 1: love to be a fly on the wall for all
Speaker 1: the conversations he's having right now. But it's gonna be
Speaker 1: tricky to navigate this next seven eight days between now
Speaker 1: and the trade deadline on August third. Of course, we
Speaker 1: will be here throughout, excited to be here along with you,
Speaker 1: react to whatever moves as they happen as best we can,
Speaker 1: and if you would like to follow us on Twitter,
Speaker 1: you may do so. I am at Jesse N. Friedman.
Speaker 1: Jack is at Shoizard fifty nine, and our show is
Speaker 1: at Snake's territory. This story that we were just referencing,
Speaker 1: this is at Arizona Diamondbacks on SI five. Potential rental
Speaker 1: bat targets for the Diamondbacks at the trade deadline, and
Speaker 1: go over there to find it in written form. A
Speaker 1: lot of great stuff over there this time of year. Jackie.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, you guys got the sneak preview
Speaker 2: of the picture side of that. If you're if you're
Speaker 2: listening to this late on Sunday night or early Monday morning.
Speaker 2: I'll be writing that up for Monday release. There you go.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you again to all of you for being
Speaker 1: with us. We really appreciate your time, and we'll be
Speaker 1: back with another edition of Snake's Territory very very soon