Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Snake's Territory, part
Speaker 1: of the Foul Territory Network. My name is Jesse Friedman,
Speaker 1: alongside the one and only Jack Summers. As always, be
Speaker 1: sure to do all the things like this video. Subscribe
Speaker 1: to our channel, maybe leave us a five star review
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast. Jack, we just witnessed a
Speaker 1: game that the Diamondbacks very much needed to win, and
Speaker 1: they were able to do just that. Merril Kelly really
Speaker 1: put the team on his back with seven innings of
Speaker 1: one run ball Diamondbacks offense able to do just enough
Speaker 1: behind him.
Speaker 2: It feels great to see Meryl pitch that well again.
Speaker 2: I thoroughly admit that I had my doubts that we
Speaker 2: would get to see this kind of performance. You know,
Speaker 2: not just a good pitching line, but how he looked
Speaker 2: doing it. It was We're back to a pleasure to
Speaker 2: watch Merril Kelly pitch.
Speaker 1: It was, you know, the way this game started, It's
Speaker 1: still felt like, okay, you know, we'll see, let's see
Speaker 1: if Meryl Kelly is able to able to be successful
Speaker 1: and go on a nice run and put some innings together.
Speaker 1: Certainly he was better his last time out against Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: Pretty clean first inning for Meryl Kelly won two three,
Speaker 1: and then he comes out for the second and Manny
Speaker 1: Machado takes the first pitch and hits it very deep,
Speaker 1: and then it's like, all right, well, here we are
Speaker 1: with Merrill Kelly. You know, certainly allowing home runs has
Speaker 1: been a trend for him this season. But as the
Speaker 1: game went on, Jack Merrill made some really big pitches,
Speaker 1: got a couple of really important double plays, and it
Speaker 1: felt like as the game went on, Merrill just seemed
Speaker 1: to get better and better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and don't forget to pick off. It was fun
Speaker 2: to see me getting back to picking guys off again.
Speaker 2: I mean that was something that he was among the
Speaker 2: leaders in the league for a few years in a row.
Speaker 2: So you know, that's another weapon in his arsenal. Probably
Speaker 2: isn't going to get a lot of ink, but picking
Speaker 2: off Tatisa was pretty big there.
Speaker 1: I mean Moreno gets the credit most of the credit
Speaker 1: for that one.
Speaker 2: Right, Oh, I'm sorry. Was that two two three not
Speaker 2: a one three?
Speaker 1: I think it was a two three. I think it
Speaker 1: was a two three. I mean, Merrill, I guess contributed, right,
Speaker 1: You're right, you're quick to play, but Gabby's the one
Speaker 1: who gunned out Tatis at first base, originally called safe
Speaker 1: and then the Diamondbacks challenged, and it looked pretty pretty
Speaker 1: cut and dry. Nice nice play all the way around.
Speaker 2: Bonehead. I saw the plate, but for whatever reason, I
Speaker 2: just looked at my sheet instead.
Speaker 1: That happens to the best of us. But yeah, as
Speaker 1: the game went along, Jacket just felt like Merrill got
Speaker 1: more and more comfortable. We saw him have a conversation
Speaker 1: with Tory Lavello and the dugout after the sixth inning.
Speaker 1: He was right around I don't remember the exact pitch count.
Speaker 1: I think it was low mid eighties something like that
Speaker 1: through six innings, and then he went out there. He
Speaker 1: won the argument with Tory Lavello was able to make
Speaker 1: his case to go back out there, and rightfully so.
Speaker 1: So Merrill went back out there, tossed to really clean one, two, three,
Speaker 1: seventh inning, and only finished the game with ninety four pitches.
Speaker 1: He was he was very efficient.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, you kind of wonder about those conversations.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about this while it was happening, like
Speaker 2: is that motivating for a pitcher? Like, you know, what
Speaker 2: is he saying? If anybody gets on you're out of there.
Speaker 2: I mean, like that that would seem to make a
Speaker 2: guy pitch tight. But that's the last thing that Meryl did.
Speaker 2: He came out and dominated at seventh inning and just
Speaker 2: you know, got through it really quickly. So you know,
Speaker 2: I'd love to be a fly on the wall in
Speaker 2: some of those conversations. I'm sure that they'll talk about
Speaker 2: it in a few moments about what was said, but
Speaker 2: you know, between them, you know where they're coming from. Right,
Speaker 2: Merril's like, get out of my way, I want to pitch,
Speaker 2: and Toy's like, okay, I'll let you go back out there.
Speaker 2: But I'm sure it went along those lines.
Speaker 1: This outing, to me, had a different feel than his
Speaker 1: game against Milwaukee. I know, the final line against Milwaukee
Speaker 1: was decent. Five innings of two runs. Certainly you would
Speaker 1: take that, but there was kind of a lot of
Speaker 1: hard contact in that game. I think Merrill allowed eight
Speaker 1: or nine base runners in that one, something like that,
Speaker 1: and it just felt like he wasn't really in control
Speaker 1: of the game as much as he was just doing
Speaker 1: like damage control when he needed to, and he was
Speaker 1: minimizing situations to his credit, finding ways to get out
Speaker 1: of jams. That he hasn't been able to get out
Speaker 1: of this season. But this game felt more like vintage
Speaker 1: Meryl Kelly. I mean, this was a as the outing
Speaker 1: went on, right, it didn't always look this way, but
Speaker 1: as the outing went on, it felt more and more
Speaker 1: like Merrill was in control of this game. I guess
Speaker 1: if I was nitpicking Jack, I would reference the thing
Speaker 1: I've referenced a lot with Merrill Kelly this season, which
Speaker 1: is that he just isn't throwing as many pitches in
Speaker 1: the strike zone as you would like to see. And
Speaker 1: oddly enough, that was very much the case in this game.
Speaker 1: His zone rate and this one was only thirty nine percent,
Speaker 1: which is actually well below his season average, very far
Speaker 1: below the league average. Merrill really did not throw very
Speaker 1: many pitches in the zone at all in this game,
Speaker 1: but it absolutely worked for him. I mean, he got
Speaker 1: a decent amount of chase outside the zone. He generated
Speaker 1: a lot of soft contact. This had a very different
Speaker 1: feel from the Milwaukee outing. Even though, yeah, we would
Speaker 1: maybe like to see Meryll land a few more pitches
Speaker 1: for strikes.
Speaker 2: Right well, you know, I mean I'd probably go back
Speaker 2: and look up and see how many were just you know,
Speaker 2: in that shadow zone or just on the outside part
Speaker 2: of the strike zone on the edges. I'd be interested
Speaker 2: to look at that, because it sure felt like he
Speaker 2: was around the zone most of the time, or when
Speaker 2: he was missing, it seemed like it had purpose, you know,
Speaker 2: whether it was a pitch running in on a right
Speaker 2: hand into batter just kind of get his hands up
Speaker 2: and you know, sliding back a little bit, you know,
Speaker 2: and then makes it more susceptible to the changeup. So
Speaker 2: I feel pretty good about the way he was locating
Speaker 2: the ball today, despite the fact that the zone percentage
Speaker 2: wasn't great, you know, but yeah, you know, who am
Speaker 2: I to counter you when it comes to nippicking.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if that's something I want to
Speaker 1: be known for per se, but yeah, this was I
Speaker 1: definitely think that's a valid point on your part. Looking
Speaker 1: at at Merrill's pitch chart, just pulling it up on
Speaker 1: Savant on my computer. Here, pretty much every pitch is competitive,
Speaker 1: and that was something we talked about after the Milwaukee outing,
Speaker 1: was he had still quite a few misfires in that game,
Speaker 1: where especially the cutter, it felt like was just kind
Speaker 1: of in no man's land time after time. But a
Speaker 1: different story in this game. He was out of the zone,
Speaker 1: maybe a little more than you'd like, but it was very,
Speaker 1: very effective and he does there's a lot of credit
Speaker 1: for that. On the offensive side of things, Jack, not
Speaker 1: a whole lot to speak of for the Diamondbacks, and
Speaker 1: this one you'd like to see more than three runs,
Speaker 1: especially with someone like Griffin canning on the mound. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll talk a little more about what's going on with
Speaker 1: the offense later, but to get into the positives from
Speaker 1: this one, the d Backs scratched across a run in
Speaker 1: the fourth inning, Corbyn Carrel unfortunately thrown out at second
Speaker 1: trying to stretch a single into a double. He really
Speaker 1: beat the tag, but then he just leaked off the
Speaker 1: base for a split second and that was that. But
Speaker 1: the d Backs still score a run in the inning
Speaker 1: there on a wild pitch. Max Kepler and Lord of
Speaker 1: s Gariel both hitting singles to contribute to that. And
Speaker 1: then in the top of the fifth Heraldo Perdomo drove
Speaker 1: in Tommy Troy from second base clutch two out single
Speaker 1: RBI single there gave the Diamondbacks a two to one
Speaker 1: lead at the time, and then the other run for
Speaker 1: Arizona and this one Nolan Arnato against Yuki Matt Suey
Speaker 1: somehow hitting a splitter that was several inches below the zone.
Speaker 1: You could tell looking at Matt Suwey's face that he
Speaker 1: was sort of like, how on earth did you do that?
Speaker 1: Pretty impressive swing from Nolan Arnado, Jack, who is just
Speaker 1: a fascinating hitter. It feels like, you know, sometimes he
Speaker 1: feels like he can't do anything with a pitch that's
Speaker 1: right down the middle, and yet he every once in
Speaker 1: a while will just run into a splitter that's six
Speaker 1: inches below the zone and hit that out of the yard.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, you know, you just don't expect that
Speaker 2: pitch to be the one that hit. I mean, splitters
Speaker 2: have been driving this team crazy all year long, so
Speaker 2: that was the last thing you would expect, especially Nolan
Speaker 2: to be able to go down and get that one.
Speaker 2: But he did. You know he's do is he have
Speaker 2: the most home runs in Petco Park amongst visiting players
Speaker 2: are close to it. I think they said he had
Speaker 2: over thirty homers and at go so it must be
Speaker 2: just something about hitting there. He likes it and they
Speaker 2: need him to, you know, at least be league average.
Speaker 2: He's kind of been doing better over the last week
Speaker 2: or so, but you know, his year to date numbers
Speaker 2: are still a little below average, I think, so you know,
Speaker 2: the home run tonight probably helped get him up closer
Speaker 2: to that. With his steady defense, if they can get
Speaker 2: that all year long, Tory's going to have to get
Speaker 2: him his days off a little bit more frequently than
Speaker 2: he had been. So you know, it's just great to
Speaker 2: see him still be able to contribute and get going
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: Dbac's bullpen was solid behind Meryl Kelly in this one.
Speaker 1: Kevin Ginkle pitched a one two three eighth inning and
Speaker 1: then Paul Sewald followed that up with a one two
Speaker 1: three ninth inning couple of strikeouts. Actually a really good
Speaker 1: game for Paul Sewalt. He looked particularly sharp in this one.
Speaker 1: So not a great series overall for the bullpen jack Obviously,
Speaker 1: yesterday's game was a bit of a rough one for them,
Speaker 1: but again, it feels like when it has mattered in
Speaker 1: the situation where you really need your bullpen to step
Speaker 1: up and protect a slim lead, this bullpen has very
Speaker 1: consistently done that in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, Paul was dominant I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: he didn't just have a nice outing. I mean it
Speaker 2: was ten pitches, nine strikes. He struck out Tattoos and
Speaker 2: bok Arts, two guys that have both taken him deep
Speaker 2: in their careers, you know, and it was just like,
Speaker 2: you know, good morning, good afternoon, good night. Yeah, it doesn't,
Speaker 2: you know, it doesn't. It was almost a nine pitch inning.
Speaker 2: So it doesn't really get much more dominant than that.
Speaker 2: It's just amazing to watch Paul sometimes pitch that dominantly
Speaker 2: considering you know, some of the other factors that we
Speaker 2: know well about his home run proneness and all of that.
Speaker 2: But you know twenty one for twenty two, who had
Speaker 2: that on their bingo card.
Speaker 1: Not mean, yeah, I would be lying if I if
Speaker 1: I said I was expecting that from Paul Seawall. It
Speaker 1: has been despite the fact that the ra is still
Speaker 1: up there. I know he's been less sharp lately, but again,
Speaker 1: he's generally stepped up when the Diamondbacks have needed him.
Speaker 2: Too.
Speaker 1: Hard to argue with twenty one for twenty two, And yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean he's really excelled in that role despite what
Speaker 1: a lot of people expected from him going into the season.
Speaker 1: We have more to get to on this series in
Speaker 1: San Diego. We're going to take a step back and
Speaker 1: we're not going to dive too much into what happened
Speaker 1: the last couple of days, but we will talk about
Speaker 1: some big picture takeaways. Look ahead to the trade deadline,
Speaker 1: check in on the standings, talk a little more about
Speaker 1: what's going on with the offense. So a whole lot
Speaker 1: more ahead. Don't go away, we'll be back right after
Speaker 1: this on Snake stairzor.
Speaker 2: Hey.
Speaker 3: For the families out there looking for a different path
Speaker 3: to help your child succeed at home, look into K
Speaker 3: twelve Powered Schools. K twelve offers tuition free, accredited online
Speaker 3: public education for students in K through twelve on a
Speaker 3: setting that works for your family. Todd Father, you've done
Speaker 3: the homeschooling thing in the past.
Speaker 2: I know you liked it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I did. I liked it a lot. All my
Speaker 4: kids have done it before. It's an opportunity for them
Speaker 4: to stay at home and enjoy school just as much.
Speaker 4: They learn a lot, and this is an opportunity for
Speaker 4: families that are on the go too as well. They
Speaker 4: have to understand, Listen, can't be at a regular school
Speaker 4: at all times. I need my child to be doing this,
Speaker 4: whether it's an athletic career, whatever stature they are at.
Speaker 4: And we loved every second of it, and I think
Speaker 4: it is an easy opportunity for some children.
Speaker 3: See how K twelve parate schools can help unlock your
Speaker 3: child's full potential. Enroll today at K twelve dot com
Speaker 3: slash foul. That's the letter K the number twelve dot
Speaker 3: com slash foul. K twelve dot com slash foul.
Speaker 1: We are back here on Snake's territory. Shout out to
Speaker 1: all of you who are here live with us in
Speaker 1: the chat. We see all your comments. We really appreciate
Speaker 1: you being here with us. If you're joining us after
Speaker 1: the fact or you're listening, we also really appreciate you
Speaker 1: as well. Be sure to drop alike on this video
Speaker 1: on YouTube, subscribe to our channel if you have not already,
Speaker 1: and if you're join us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Speaker 1: one of those audio only platforms. It also really helps
Speaker 1: us out if you would leave us a five star review. Well, Jack,
Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier how the Diamondbacks got their runs in
Speaker 1: this game. It was not exactly a firework display for
Speaker 1: that unit in this one, just scoring three runs in
Speaker 1: this game, and by and large in the series, the
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks offense did not do particularly well against what has
Speaker 1: been a weaker starting pitching group for San Diego this season.
Speaker 1: I guess the vibes were high on Monday, Jack, when
Speaker 1: they came out and they scored eight runs. You felt
Speaker 1: like maybe this was going to be a big swing
Speaker 1: in the other direction for that group. But then the
Speaker 1: d Backs came back and just mustered one run on
Speaker 1: Tuesday and then three runs in the game yesterday, which
Speaker 1: did not particularly matter much at that point, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been a rough go for that group for quite
Speaker 1: a while now.
Speaker 2: You know, Unfortunately, almost every player except for a few,
Speaker 2: have been underperforming their projections this year what was expected
Speaker 2: of them, some by very large margins. Some are players
Speaker 2: that are on the firing line as far as you know,
Speaker 2: severe underperformance to the point of DFA DFA. Others are
Speaker 2: you know, some of the stars on this team have
Speaker 2: not done what is expected of them, and so it's
Speaker 2: all kind of combined to an offense that's severely underwhelmed
Speaker 2: and underperformed. You know, I wrote an article the other
Speaker 2: day and I made a case for you can almost
Speaker 2: calculate that the team is about fifty runs shy of
Speaker 2: where they should be based on their projections and playing
Speaker 2: time that they've gotten. You know, the one thing that
Speaker 2: the players themselves can't really control is the playing time
Speaker 2: they get. Obviously, you play better, you get more playing time.
Speaker 2: But whether it's injury, who got called up, who got
Speaker 2: sent down, and how Tory decides to put the lineup in,
Speaker 2: they don't really control that. But you know, you still
Speaker 2: can look at things based on how much playing time
Speaker 2: they've got gotten and how much they've produced versus how
Speaker 2: much they were expected to produce. So that's what I
Speaker 2: was trying to do in my article the other day,
Speaker 2: and here's the chart on it. So the metric that
Speaker 2: I used was runs created. The runs created metric is
Speaker 2: simply looking at the inputs of you know, hits, walks,
Speaker 2: home runs, strikeouts, et cetera, et cetera, all their bat
Speaker 2: at all events and all their walks and strikeouts and
Speaker 2: looking at how many runs those typically create. So that's
Speaker 2: what runs created is because it takes sequencing out of
Speaker 2: the picture. And when you look at this, the team
Speaker 2: has created has runs created three hundred and sixty eight
Speaker 2: heading into yesterday's game is a two games old data
Speaker 2: and there were fifty two runs under what they were
Speaker 2: projected to do. So I'm showing here the plate appearances,
Speaker 2: the runs created, and the over or under projection. So,
Speaker 2: for example, Gabra Marino has thirty eight runs created in
Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty three plate appearances. He was projected
Speaker 2: in this many per plate appearance to have about thirty
Speaker 2: almost thirty five, so he's three point two over. If
Speaker 2: you flip all the way to the bottom of the table,
Speaker 2: Lord Escuriel only has thirteen runs created in one hundred
Speaker 2: and sixty eight plate appearances, where he should have had
Speaker 2: about twenty one or twenty two based on his preseason projection,
Speaker 2: and so he's minus eight point six. So that's the
Speaker 2: top and the bottom of this chart. And this was
Speaker 2: a way for me to calculate the impact of each
Speaker 2: player on the team. And it's really fairly evident obviously
Speaker 2: that looking at ten other metrics, you don't need this
Speaker 2: to tell you that Lordis and Peven have been extremely
Speaker 2: detrimental to the offense, as was Adrian del Castillo before
Speaker 2: being sent out. I mean they're at minus seven point
Speaker 2: four minus seven point six and minus eight point six. Now,
Speaker 2: surprisingly you see Katel Marte and Heraldo Padomo just above
Speaker 2: them at minus five to five and minus six six.
Speaker 2: Obviously they're good players and they're still well above average,
Speaker 2: but there was supposed to be even better than this,
Speaker 2: and so they're each missing about five or six runs.
Speaker 2: And you know, if you look at the bottom of
Speaker 2: the table, I mean del Castillo, Smith and Guriel, they
Speaker 2: account for forty five percent of the negative fifty two
Speaker 2: runs in just twelve percent of the played appearances. So
Speaker 2: this is just another way to quantify how badly they've
Speaker 2: impacted the team. But also more to the point, if
Speaker 2: you look at the top, the positive numbers are there
Speaker 2: for Marino Lawler, who's only got forty four played appearances,
Speaker 2: Jose Fernandez. However, Jose didn't have a very high projection
Speaker 2: to begin with, and then as same for Vargas. So
Speaker 2: you know, at this point you don't really have enough
Speaker 2: positive above expected production above projected production from the top
Speaker 2: of the table, and almost everybody's underperforming. So that's the
Speaker 2: bottom line. I mean, it's just it's a lineup wide thing.
Speaker 2: But there's three or four guys that really hurt the
Speaker 2: s team. The most.
Speaker 1: I know, you mentioned that there are some of the
Speaker 1: better hitters that show up in the negative here, right,
Speaker 1: Likekzel was projected to do more, Heraldo Perdomo was projected
Speaker 1: to do more. But what really stood out to me
Speaker 1: looking at that was like, oh my gosh, like every
Speaker 1: single non star level hitter shows up not only in
Speaker 1: the red, but like deep in the red. Consider how
Speaker 1: many played appearances they had, right, I mean, there's just
Speaker 1: a massive difference between lordus Guriel Junior having an OPS
Speaker 1: in the in the mid five hundreds versus having an
Speaker 1: OPS in the low mid seven hundreds. Like the difference
Speaker 1: there is as big as the difference between lordis having
Speaker 1: an OPS and the seven hundreds and having an OPS
Speaker 1: and then nine hundreds. I mean, that's the same kind
Speaker 1: of gap that you're talking about there, and that's happening
Speaker 1: with a lot of different hitters on this team where
Speaker 1: you were expecting to get at least like a competent,
Speaker 1: roughly league average sort of production and instead you're getting
Speaker 1: well below that. And so yeah, I mean, would you
Speaker 1: like to see Catel's numbers continue to go up a
Speaker 1: little bit? Heraldo had a nice game today, Maybe he's
Speaker 1: able to get on a bit of a continued run.
Speaker 1: He's had stretches here and there, but hasn't been able
Speaker 1: to maintain it for a long period of time. You
Speaker 1: would like to see those things happen, but you just
Speaker 1: need like a level of competence from the bottom of
Speaker 1: the lineup. And it feels jack like the Dbacks have
Speaker 1: been chasing that all season long.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, at a certain point you
Speaker 2: have to say, like, I'm ready to throw in the
Speaker 2: towel on the projections, right, like, you know, the rest
Speaker 2: of season projections still, I mean, they've all taken a
Speaker 2: hit almost you know, most of them have taken a
Speaker 2: hit as far as what the rest of season numbers
Speaker 2: look like compared to their preseason numbers.
Speaker 1: I'm putting the paid Smith numbers on the screen.
Speaker 2: Here we go. Yeah, and then of course you know
Speaker 2: the obligatory now we've gone. I've showed this table before.
Speaker 2: This is just an update. Back in middle June. On
Speaker 2: June sixteenth, I published an article and we posted this
Speaker 2: this table and you've probably seen it on Twitter if
Speaker 2: you follow me there, and this just shows you know,
Speaker 2: what Peven Smith did the first part of his career
Speaker 2: through September of twenty four, over eleven hundred and almost
Speaker 2: twelve hundred played appearances, he was a little bit below
Speaker 2: average with a ninety two WRC plus, so he's about
Speaker 2: eight percent below average hitter for the first twelve hundred
Speaker 2: played appearances of his career. I see a lot of
Speaker 2: people quoting his war totals. I kind of ignore the
Speaker 2: Baseball Reference war total because Smith played over at almost
Speaker 2: fifteen hundred innings in the outfield.
Speaker 1: Sorry, sorry, Jack, I'm gonna I'm gonna interrupt you real
Speaker 1: quick because I saw someone put this in the chat
Speaker 1: and I just confirmed on Twitter, speaking of Peven Smith,
Speaker 1: we have some news. The Diamondbacks, according to Nick Bacoro
Speaker 1: one minute ago, have designated Peven Smith for assignment and
Speaker 1: Ryan Waldschmidt is on his way back up to the majors.
Speaker 1: So this is breaking news live on the show from
Speaker 1: our good friend Nick Bacoro out in San Diego. The
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks made the move Jack that people have been calling
Speaker 1: for for a long time. Peven Smith has been designated
Speaker 1: for assignment, and Ryan Waldschmid, who's been down in Triple
Speaker 1: A for a few weeks now, he's on his way
Speaker 1: back to the majors overdue.
Speaker 2: You know, I've been talking about this for a while,
Speaker 2: despite what a lot of people seem to think. You know,
Speaker 2: obviously I was a little slower than many to call
Speaker 2: for him to be removed from the roster. But my
Speaker 2: line in the sand was my article on June sixteenth,
Speaker 2: and at that point I'm like, Okay, he's got to
Speaker 2: do it right now or he needs to be removed
Speaker 2: from the roster. And he didn't, and I think that
Speaker 2: they let it go an extra couple of weeks. I
Speaker 2: really expected him to not last past Max Kepler returning
Speaker 2: coming up on June twenty fifth. That was kind of
Speaker 2: like my absolute deadline for him to get things turned around,
Speaker 2: and he didn't. And it was frustrating as much for
Speaker 2: me as everybody else to see him, you know, continue
Speaker 2: on for more than another two weeks. Unfortunate for him,
Speaker 2: nice guy. I would have loved to have seen him
Speaker 2: be successful, but this should have happened a while ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Peven Smith, I mean, it's hard to argue with
Speaker 1: the numbers. Right this season, he has slashed one forty
Speaker 1: one two thirty six two and just for the heck
Speaker 1: of it, I'll throw this graphic back up on the screen.
Speaker 1: I know you were just talking through it. Peven's career
Speaker 1: WRC plus is ninety eight, his career OPS is seven
Speaker 1: to twenty, and as you have here on the screen,
Speaker 1: his rest of season projection was to be just a
Speaker 1: little bit south of that, to have an ops of
Speaker 1: seven oh two and a WRC plus in the low
Speaker 1: ninety range. The issue is that while Peven Smith has
Speaker 1: sort of always projected as a league average hitter on paper,
Speaker 1: he's almost never been that. Like if you look at
Speaker 1: Peven Smith's year by year line, he pretty much has
Speaker 1: always either been way better than that, although it didn't
Speaker 1: happen for very long, as your table points out, that
Speaker 1: really just happened over a couple of months, really, but
Speaker 1: it heavily impacted his numbers both in twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: and in twenty twenty five. Both of those season numbers
Speaker 1: look great, but then you have you know, his twenty
Speaker 1: two twenty three season where he had a six forty
Speaker 1: two OPS, in his twenty twenty two season where he
Speaker 1: had a six sixty seven OPS, and then of course
Speaker 1: this year where he was one of the one of
Speaker 1: the worst hitters in baseball when he was actually in
Speaker 1: the lineup. So just a bizarre situation where like the
Speaker 1: full body of work was right in the middle. And
Speaker 1: I think the d Backs would have taken a seven
Speaker 1: to twenty ops from Peven this year. I mean, if
Speaker 1: if he had a seven twenty ops, he'd be one
Speaker 1: of the best hitters on the team. He would probably
Speaker 1: he would probably be batting fifth, and people would be
Speaker 1: okay with that. But for whatever reason, Jack, he just
Speaker 1: hasn't been able to have any kind of consistency at
Speaker 1: the plate. It was just those those two months at
Speaker 1: the end of twenty four in the beginning of twenty
Speaker 1: five where he lit the world on fire. And understandably,
Speaker 1: after you see that, it's it's maybe a little bit
Speaker 1: hard to let go. But I at the same time,
Speaker 1: I think we're all on the same page. This is
Speaker 1: a move that Diamondbacks probably could have made a while back.
Speaker 2: Look, let's be one hundred percent transparent here. We sat
Speaker 2: in that press room time after time, whether it was
Speaker 2: Mike or whether it was Tory insisting to us Peven
Speaker 2: Smith can hit, and that phrase became somewhat of not
Speaker 2: just a talking point, but an eye roll point. I mean,
Speaker 2: we heard it over and over and over again, and
Speaker 2: very few of us in that press room bought into it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and every time we heard it, we're just going to
Speaker 2: do again. Really, they're going to keep saying this, and
Speaker 2: then it just kind of became a joke, you know,
Speaker 2: and they had a misplaced confidence. I think it was
Speaker 2: very much born out of a lot of bad at
Speaker 2: bald data. When he did have some of those lower ops,
Speaker 2: some of his bad at bald data suggested that he
Speaker 2: should be doing a lot better. And then when he
Speaker 2: had that hot one hundred and thirty seven PA, they
Speaker 2: felt very validated in waiting him out, you know. And
Speaker 2: what they were not able to see and what they
Speaker 2: were blind to was the following two hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: PA were just absolutely abysmal. And so they stuck with
Speaker 2: it too long. And you know, this is something again
Speaker 2: that you know, you can say, all right, well you
Speaker 2: give them a shot this year. That's great. But heading
Speaker 2: into the year again, i'll you know, I pointed out
Speaker 2: to Mike that they should bring in a left handed
Speaker 2: bat because they can't go into the season thinking that
Speaker 2: finding a right handed first base on the platoon of
Speaker 2: Paven's going to get it done. They need a left
Speaker 2: handed bat because they can't depend on just Peven and
Speaker 2: Adrian del Castillo. And so that's why I went on
Speaker 2: and on about Ryan, Ryan O'Hearn or you know, somebody.
Speaker 2: They needed to get a left handed bat, and you know,
Speaker 2: they didn't see it that way. And you know, they
Speaker 2: were right about a lot of things that I've been
Speaker 2: wrong about. And I don't mean to in any way
Speaker 2: imply that I could do a better job as a
Speaker 2: GM of the Arizona Diamondbacks. It's way above my level,
Speaker 2: but I was right about this one thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a I think it's hard to
Speaker 1: argue with that at this point. Mighty Schuman in the
Speaker 1: in the chat says Il Tomorrow can take the left
Speaker 1: handed first base at bats. Yeah, I mean it seems
Speaker 1: like that's sort of the course of action from here.
Speaker 1: I don't think the d Backs are bringing Rian Walschman
Speaker 1: back to play first base, so presumably it's going to
Speaker 1: be Eil Tomorrow and basically an everyday role over at first.
Speaker 1: And then Tim Tawas as we saw today, he can
Speaker 1: he can play the position as well if the d
Speaker 1: Backs need him to. But yeah, I think it's I
Speaker 1: think it's eel Tomorrow Vargas's job, which in some ways
Speaker 1: is a is a credit to Eil Tomorrow and the
Speaker 1: season he's had, especially what he did early on offensively
Speaker 1: and what he's continued to do defensively. He's he's played
Speaker 1: that position really, really well. But on the other hand, Jack,
Speaker 1: I think the fact that Eldamara Vargas is is the
Speaker 1: best option right now at first base is is kind
Speaker 1: of a problem. I mean, even for the good moments
Speaker 1: that eild Tomorrow has had this year. I mean, the
Speaker 1: fact that he's your best option against even right handed pitching,
Speaker 1: that's that is problematic eild Tomorrow this season. I'm finding
Speaker 1: these numbers. Eield Tomorrow this season against righty's is hitting
Speaker 1: two twenty three with a five ninety one ops. I
Speaker 1: mean that is that is not the kind of production
Speaker 1: you're looking for from any position, much less at first base.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So you know, I kinda shoot something at you, Jesse,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna see if you can get this up
Speaker 2: on the screen. I don't know if you're able to
Speaker 2: or not.
Speaker 1: We can try.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's a table that I posted image. Sorry, folks,
Speaker 2: stay with us. This is in the moment. Okay, So
Speaker 2: the table that Jesse is about to put up is
Speaker 2: the Diamondbacks first baseman sorted by plate appearances with their
Speaker 2: OPS showing alongside it. Oh dear, and you know this
Speaker 2: is again heading into tonight. Three hundred and sixty six
Speaker 2: plate appearances as a first baseman for the Diamondbacks, and
Speaker 2: Ildemaro Vargas had one hundred and eighty one of them
Speaker 2: so half, and as a first baseman he's had a
Speaker 2: six thirty three OPS. The second most was Jose Fernandez
Speaker 2: was sixty PA and he had a five to fifty seven.
Speaker 2: The third highest amount of PA at first base was
Speaker 2: Peven Smith with fifty three and he had a four
Speaker 2: to oh nine OPS. Lou James Gruver thirty three PA
Speaker 2: with a five oh nine. Carlos Santana, who they signed
Speaker 2: and expected to play most of the time, was terrible
Speaker 2: for eight games twenty six PA with a two seventy
Speaker 2: nine OPS, and then got hurt and never came back.
Speaker 2: So you know two things here that you should glean
Speaker 2: from this table. Ildemar Vargus is not the answer at
Speaker 2: first base. And actually, if you're just focusing on first
Speaker 2: base alone, and what's made the news recently, about the
Speaker 2: worst first base ops since nineteen twenty. Peved Smith only
Speaker 2: was responsible for fifty three of those PA, So I
Speaker 2: think that that's important to recognize. You know, their first
Speaker 2: base problem is an organizational problem. It wasn't a Pavent
Speaker 2: Smith problem. Not a defense of Pavent Smith, don't twist
Speaker 2: my words, just like guys enough, there's a problem.
Speaker 1: Was he was one of many problems is sort of
Speaker 1: the takeaway there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, they don't have a first basement and
Speaker 2: they haven't all year, right, and they didn't going into
Speaker 2: the season. They didn't have a valid plan for first
Speaker 2: base heading into twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: I remember when I think it was Gambo tweeted out
Speaker 1: at one point during the offseason that first base was
Speaker 1: not going to be a priority for the team this offseason,
Speaker 1: that they were focused on the rotation, they were focused
Speaker 1: on the bullpen, and they thought they had they had
Speaker 1: they had at least had guys there who could play
Speaker 1: the position. And I remember reacting to that here and
Speaker 1: being like, that doesn't that doesn't It seems like a
Speaker 1: bold move to just roll with what you got at
Speaker 1: that position, and it couldn't have gone any more disastrously
Speaker 1: than it has up to this point. I mean, you're
Speaker 1: talking about the lowest ops at the position by any
Speaker 1: team since nineteen twenty. That's not exactly where you want
Speaker 1: to be in that regard. So I think Ildmorrow could
Speaker 1: be fine against lefties, Like if you want to make
Speaker 1: him your short side platoon at first base, the defense
Speaker 1: is there, and he has good numbers against lefties this
Speaker 1: season at the plate, Eildamara Vargas is hitting three twenty
Speaker 1: two with a nine oh seven OPS against lefties, but
Speaker 1: we know what he is against righty's. And if the
Speaker 1: d Bacs are serious about trying to get back in
Speaker 1: this thing, Jack, it is abundantly clear that they will
Speaker 1: need a left handed bat who can play first base
Speaker 1: at the trade deadline. And we weren't planning to talk
Speaker 1: about this today, but I'm just going to throw his
Speaker 1: name out there because I know you've mentioned him before.
Speaker 1: Nathaniel Lowe of the Cincinnati Reds makes kind of a
Speaker 1: lot of sense. He's someone that you know the Reds
Speaker 1: are going to sell. They're going to be sellers. He
Speaker 1: doesn't make all that much money, and he's a left
Speaker 1: handed hitting first baseman who's had a pretty good season
Speaker 1: Nathaniel Lowe.
Speaker 2: I mean you look at his ops plus in his career,
Speaker 2: and he's what Peven Smith was supposed to be. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, not eye popping power, but should give you
Speaker 2: double digits, maybe fifteen or twenty in a good year,
Speaker 2: and you know, be over one hundred ops plus most
Speaker 2: years one hundred and ten hundred and fifteen, one hundred
Speaker 2: and twenty and other than twenty twenty five. That's pretty
Speaker 2: much what He's been a lot of buzz about Manny Pina,
Speaker 2: So I want to address that as well. Sure, So
Speaker 2: you know, look, I've been following Penya pretty closely since
Speaker 2: last year. I again apologize if I got an edge tonight. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I do you know, I had people chirping at me.
Speaker 2: They probably never even heard of Manny Pena sixty days ago,
Speaker 2: you know, trying to make it sound like I don't
Speaker 2: like Manny Pina, and so I got a little defensive
Speaker 2: on Twitter. I apologized if that edge has come out,
Speaker 2: I was trying to explain since this morning. At seven
Speaker 2: thirty this morning, I tweeted out, hey make sure you
Speaker 2: look at the pictures that are facing the Reno aces,
Speaker 2: and I wasn't even thinking of Pina. When I wrote that,
Speaker 2: I was just saying in general, because they scored fourteen
Speaker 2: runs last night. Adrian Doug Castillo went four for four
Speaker 2: and had a homer. Okay, came back and you know,
Speaker 2: and so what I was trying to say to people
Speaker 2: was like, hey, thirty four year old, washed up Marco
Speaker 2: Gonzalez was a starter, and they had a thirty two
Speaker 2: year old washed up for Lever come in and give
Speaker 2: up a bunch of runs too. And so it's just
Speaker 2: really important when you look at those minor league numbers.
Speaker 2: In a minor league box scores, like, hey, who are
Speaker 2: they going against? Look for the other team's good pictures.
Speaker 2: Who's in the other team's pipeline, right, you know, are
Speaker 2: they in their top thirty pictures? Where were they drafted?
Speaker 2: What's their pedigree? You know? And if it's a twenty
Speaker 2: nine to thirty year old journeyman, you know, it's you
Speaker 2: just got to take it a little bit with a
Speaker 2: grain of salt. I mean, it's the PCL. They score
Speaker 2: almost six runs a game. They're at forty five hundred
Speaker 2: feet in Reno. We see this over and over and
Speaker 2: over again. Guys come up from Reno with great numbers
Speaker 2: and they're ops and the Majors is two or three
Speaker 2: hundred points lower. So it's just a way to say, hey,
Speaker 2: chill a little bit on some of these numbers that
Speaker 2: you're seeing coming out of Reno. Now many Pina hit
Speaker 2: twenty six home runs in Double A, He's hit three
Speaker 2: or four now in TRIPA A. He's hot lately, and
Speaker 2: he may very well be the guy. I mean, maybe
Speaker 2: he's going to come up and be able to step
Speaker 2: right in and produce right away, and I hope he does.
Speaker 2: I think he might get a chance. I think that
Speaker 2: it's not outside the realm of possibility that they just
Speaker 2: turn to him and give him a shot. You know,
Speaker 2: I just don't want it to be where people have
Speaker 2: the expectation, Oh, this guy's going to come in, he's
Speaker 2: going to hit two eighty and you know, go on
Speaker 2: a thirty homer pace as soon as he steps into
Speaker 2: the major leagues. It's not very likely. That's all I'm
Speaker 2: trying to say. Don't set your expectations too high there,
Speaker 2: especially when it comes to evaluating these players. So that's
Speaker 2: my Manny Penia rank. You know, I love the guy
Speaker 2: as a prospect. I'm really excited to see what he
Speaker 2: can do. That home run he hit today was an
Speaker 2: APO shot, which is great to see because when he
Speaker 2: was hitting Amarillo, they were all pull fly balls, So
Speaker 2: hitting opposite field Homer's great to see.
Speaker 1: I want to highlight the a couple of comments here.
Speaker 1: One is on one is on the screen from corbon barrels.
Speaker 1: You can't have too much penia power on one team,
Speaker 1: guys will break the algorithm. And then Mark followed up
Speaker 1: and said, okay, but Jack that we considered we can
Speaker 1: replace penia power with penia power. So yeah, that there
Speaker 1: would be the dvac's Twitter account. I'm sure would would
Speaker 1: have a lot of fun with that. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I think I think you don't have to even
Speaker 1: look too deeply at the numbers with with penia to
Speaker 1: to think that maybe he has there's a little more
Speaker 1: seasoning needed there. He entered today with a one hundred
Speaker 1: w RC plus in triple A, exactly league average. The
Speaker 1: walk and strikeout rates have both been pretty decent, but
Speaker 1: the quality of contact has has not not been what
Speaker 1: you'd expect given the surface numbers, which of course is
Speaker 1: something we're we're always paying attention to with Reno, So uh,
Speaker 1: I'd love to see him get a shot at some
Speaker 1: point this year, but it feels like we're probably a
Speaker 1: little ways from that. At this point. We have more
Speaker 1: to get to end this episode, we're going to check
Speaker 1: in on the standings, maybe talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: trade deadline toward Lavello, kind of what his job security
Speaker 1: situation is with where the Diamondbacks are sitting in the standing.
Speaker 1: So don't go away, we'll be back right after this
Speaker 1: break here on Sneak's territory.
Speaker 5: This episode is brought to you by FanDuel Baseball Fans.
Speaker 5: The MLB season is in full swing, and FanDuel is
Speaker 5: giving you a chance to call your shot with Daily Dingers.
Speaker 5: Joining the action is easy. Just make your free pick
Speaker 5: on who's hitting a home run in their game, and
Speaker 5: if you're right, you'll get a profit boost to use
Speaker 5: on your next bet for a chance at extra winnings.
Speaker 5: It's just another reason why FanDuel is the home of
Speaker 5: home runs. So are you ready to play your game?
Speaker 5: Head over to FanDuel dot com Slash podcast to get started.
Speaker 5: That's FanDuel dot com Slash podcast. To opt in for
Speaker 5: Daily Dingers, make your free pick on who's hitting a
Speaker 5: homer Playball Swing for the Fences on FanDuel, an official
Speaker 5: partner of Major League Baseball. No purchase necessary, opt in required,
Speaker 5: bonus issued, does non withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply,
Speaker 5: including any token expiration and max wager amount. See terms
Speaker 5: at sportsbook dot FanDuel dot com. Gambling problem caller Tex
Speaker 5: one eight hundred gambler.
Speaker 1: We are back here on Snake's territory. Thank you again
Speaker 1: to all of you for being here with us. Jack.
Speaker 1: I guess we'll talk a little bit about Tory Leavello
Speaker 1: and that'll kind of lead us into some more trade
Speaker 1: deadline shatter. Derek Hall was asked about this on the
Speaker 1: radio today. Of course, it's no it's no secret. I
Speaker 1: mean Tory Leavello. His contract is up at the end
Speaker 1: of the year, as it seems like it always is,
Speaker 1: and the Diamondbacks have a decision to be made there.
Speaker 1: Even with the win today split against the Padres, the
Speaker 1: Dbacks are still a game under five hundred, and I'll
Speaker 1: bring in the standings here as well. The Diamondbacks are
Speaker 1: sitting at five and a half games behind the Miami
Speaker 1: Marlins and the Philadelphia Phillies, who are now tied for
Speaker 1: the second and third wild card spots, and this is
Speaker 1: not a great place to be Jack, There's there's no
Speaker 1: getting around it. The Dbacks would have to jump four teams,
Speaker 1: and they also are sitting five and a half back,
Speaker 1: which is a pretty big number.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and don't forget the Marlins hold the tiebreaker advantage
Speaker 2: three to nothing thanks to that sweep, so they can
Speaker 2: tie the Marlins, they're really six and a half back.
Speaker 2: They have to be a game better.
Speaker 1: I guess they have the tiebreaker with the Phillies though
Speaker 1: right now I.
Speaker 2: Remember, Yeah, they're up to one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I guess you could argue that that they
Speaker 1: are there. They're six and a half behind Miami, But
Speaker 1: then they're they're only five and a half behind the Phillies.
Speaker 1: So maybe we should be viewing Miami as really being
Speaker 1: the second wild card spot right now and the Phillies
Speaker 1: being in the third wildcard spot. But no matter how
Speaker 1: you're going to view that, the Diamondbacks still have a
Speaker 1: lot of ground to make up here. Things have gotten
Speaker 1: much worse for them in the standings over the past
Speaker 1: few weeks, especially as the Miami Marlins have really caught
Speaker 1: fire been one of the best teams in the league
Speaker 1: here for a while. And so that brings us back
Speaker 1: to Tory Levello Jack and the fact that there was
Speaker 1: a game in this series. I don't think we need
Speaker 1: to rehash every little thing, but the Wednesday game was
Speaker 1: obviously very important to all of these games were, and
Speaker 1: not only did the Diamondbacks lose ten to four, but
Speaker 1: they played a really sloppy baseball game. There were a
Speaker 1: lot of mishaps throughout that one, and I think it's
Speaker 1: fair to wonder if that made Tory Leavello seat a
Speaker 1: little bit hotter than it was before.
Speaker 2: I think it's more than fair to wonder. I think
Speaker 2: it's a certainty that it did. Think that it's been
Speaker 2: getting warmer and warmer. And you know, look, people are emotional, right,
Speaker 2: and it's not just fans that get emotional or press
Speaker 2: or podcasters. Ownership gets emotional too. Absolutely, whether you're talking
Speaker 2: about Ken or Derek, they feel the same things that
Speaker 2: we do when they're watching these games. And it's their business,
Speaker 2: it's their ball team, right, so they're going to be
Speaker 2: even more frustrated than we all are, even if they're
Speaker 2: raking in the money or whatever they want to win.
Speaker 2: You know, I know that they want to win. A
Speaker 2: lot of people think that they don't care about winning,
Speaker 2: but they really do. I mean, I know these people personally,
Speaker 2: they care about winning, and so you know, when when
Speaker 2: things go the way they did and when the team
Speaker 2: plays like they did, I mean, they have a visceral reaction.
Speaker 2: And that came out today, I believe. You know, Look,
Speaker 2: Derek is very professional, and you know, I think he
Speaker 2: was trying to be measured, but he was very apologetic
Speaker 2: to the fans about how sloppy and terrible the team looked.
Speaker 2: He did not pull in punches about that. And you know,
Speaker 2: when the topic of Tory's job security came up, I
Speaker 2: was a little confused by the way he phrased it. Like,
Speaker 2: on the one hand, he's talking about, you know, these
Speaker 2: are the pieces that you're given, and I don't know
Speaker 2: if he was trying to say that he wasn't given
Speaker 2: good enough pieces or if he was trying to say
Speaker 2: the pieces you've been given are good enough, you should
Speaker 2: be doing better, you know, But it did ultimately seem
Speaker 2: to come down to they feel like the team is
Speaker 2: underperformed despite the injuries that they've had, that the team
Speaker 2: should be performing better. So you know, now where do
Speaker 2: is that? We've talked about this for seven, eight, ten
Speaker 2: minutes on a mailbag the other day. You know, what
Speaker 2: does that mean? Also for Mike Kaysen, you know, is
Speaker 2: he in the same boat as Tory or is he
Speaker 2: in a different situation? His contract runs through twenty eight
Speaker 2: with a team option for twenty nine. You know, could
Speaker 2: it be a situation where Tory takes to fall first
Speaker 2: and then if things don't turn around in a next
Speaker 2: year or two, then Mike is out. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean that's a lot of speculation, but it's front
Speaker 2: and center on the topics right now. Toy's seat is
Speaker 2: more than just warm, it's basically hot. I think he's
Speaker 2: on the hot seat.
Speaker 1: I think there's been a trend that has formed over
Speaker 1: the past few years which is troubling for to wear
Speaker 1: leavelo and makes his seat hotter in a moment like this,
Speaker 1: and that is that in the biggest moments in the
Speaker 1: regular season, the Diamondbacks have often faded, right. I mean
Speaker 1: you think back to even twenty twenty three. I know
Speaker 1: the World Series happened, and Toy deserves a whole lot
Speaker 1: of credit for that, But if we're thinking about the
Speaker 1: last few regular seasons. The d Backs kind of coasted
Speaker 1: to the end in twenty three and they very much
Speaker 1: backed their way into the playoffs with eighty four wins,
Speaker 1: and then you follow up in twenty four, they basically
Speaker 1: had a playoff spot, secured their playoff odds or you know,
Speaker 1: north of ninety seven percent with a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: to go, and they missed the playoffs in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: And then we just had Corbyn Carroll a few days
Speaker 1: ago very openly talk about how the team was pressing
Speaker 1: last year around the trade deadline, and certainly that wasn't
Speaker 1: rocket science. As an observer, it felt that way as well.
Speaker 1: And now the Diamondbacks find themselves in a very similar
Speaker 1: position a year later. And so, you know, I think
Speaker 1: there's a manner in which moving on from Tory Leavello
Speaker 1: would sort of be him being the fall guy for
Speaker 1: all of this. I certainly this is not all his fault.
Speaker 1: That would not be a fair way to frame this.
Speaker 1: But there is also this narrative developing Jack where you know,
Speaker 1: the organization could look at this team's performance when it
Speaker 1: has really mattered the most and see a team that
Speaker 1: has struggled to rise to the occasion.
Speaker 2: Under Tory Leavello, it's been a I would say, a
Speaker 2: very consistent thing that when this team has low expectations
Speaker 2: they do well, and when they have high expectations they
Speaker 2: do poorly. Yeah, that's been a fairly consistent theme. I
Speaker 2: don't know why. I don't have an answer for that specifically.
Speaker 2: I mean you can say, oh, well, it's a manager,
Speaker 2: but like, what is he doing or not doing? That
Speaker 2: creates that I don't know, and I know we're fairly
Speaker 2: close to it, but it's a very difficult thing to
Speaker 2: tease out like why that occurs. But it's very clear
Speaker 2: when when expectations are high, they've underperformed. When expectations are low,
Speaker 2: they've overperformed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's hard to know how much of that
Speaker 1: is Tory Lavello's doing. How much of that is is
Speaker 1: there a call reference the roster that he's been given
Speaker 1: That did sort of feel like, you know, maybe maybe
Speaker 1: talking about the responsibility that Mike Kazen has in all
Speaker 1: of this as well. If Peven Smith is on the roster,
Speaker 1: then you know Tory sort of has to use him
Speaker 1: at least to a degree, that kind of thing. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it is very fair to say that Tory
Speaker 1: Lavello is in a difficult position right now, and how
Speaker 1: the next few weeks, how the next even three days ago, Jack,
Speaker 1: feels very significant, and that leads us into a look
Speaker 1: ahead at this weekend as a Diamondbacks head to Los
Speaker 1: Angeles three games against the Dodgers to finish up the
Speaker 1: first half of the season. And tomorrow's pitching matchup is
Speaker 1: kind of a fun one.
Speaker 2: Jack.
Speaker 1: It is Eduardo Rodriguez against Joho Tani. And I'm not
Speaker 1: sure I ever thought I would say this, but e
Speaker 1: rod against Otani advantage Diamondbacks, no or something.
Speaker 2: You still have to score. I mean, look, you could
Speaker 2: go out and catch another excellent game, go seven innings,
Speaker 2: give up one or two runs. You have to score. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and question, I can just light up score against on Tani.
Speaker 1: Right, I guess I was saying, like purely from a
Speaker 1: pitching matchup perspective, you know, But then again, I mean know,
Speaker 1: Tani's era is still lower than e Rods somehow, Tony's
Speaker 1: just had an absurd season with a one point seventy nine.
Speaker 1: So yeah, as good as Eduardo Rodriguez has been this year,
Speaker 1: there is I think probably no case to be made
Speaker 1: that the Diamondbacks have the upper hand in that game tomorrow,
Speaker 1: but nonetheless Dbacks have their ace for the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: sixth season on the mound. It's going to be a
Speaker 1: difficult weekend from a pitching matchup standpoint. D Backs get
Speaker 1: Yamamoto in the Saturday game. He'll go against Brandon Fott,
Speaker 1: and then it's Zach Gallon against Emmett Shehan listed on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Jacket appears that Brandon Garcia will not be opening for
Speaker 1: Gallon on Sunday unless the Diamondbacks pull some last minute switch.
Speaker 1: There doesn't look like we're getting the opener this time around.
Speaker 1: So that's what's coming up this weekend. We had some
Speaker 1: other trade deadline stuff that we were going to talk about.
Speaker 1: We wound up talking a whole lot about Peven Smith
Speaker 1: and that decision instead. But we'll circle back to the
Speaker 1: trade deadline on tomorrow's show and you can find us
Speaker 1: back here basically twenty four hours from right now. We'll
Speaker 1: be live after that Diamondbacks Dodgers game, so we would
Speaker 1: love to see all of you back here then if
Speaker 1: you haven't already, you can find us on social media.
Speaker 1: I am at jesse En Friedman on Twitter. Jack is
Speaker 1: at Shoe Wizard fifty nine, and our show is at
Speaker 1: Snake's Territory. You can find Jack's written work, including that
Speaker 1: article about the offense and that deep dive that we
Speaker 1: were doing earlier. All of that is in written form
Speaker 1: over at Arizona Diamondbacks on SI, so be sure to
Speaker 1: check that out as well. Jack, any final thoughts here
Speaker 1: as we say goodbye, I.
Speaker 2: Just want to respond to a couple of questions. You know,
Speaker 2: people think that maybe we're letting Mike Asen off here.
Speaker 2: I mean, I just spent five ten minutes talking about
Speaker 2: how you know, he did have a good plan for
Speaker 2: first base. We've talked a lot about things that we
Speaker 2: felt were deficient in the roster construction. Mike Casen and
Speaker 2: Tory Levello are joined at the hip. This is an
Speaker 2: organizational situation. Mike Casen's the boss, but him and Tory
Speaker 2: Levello are the creators of this baseball team. That's it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that is that is very fair. Certainly are
Speaker 1: the criticism that we have for Tory Leavello. You know,
Speaker 1: Mike Hasen shares a lot of that as well. He's
Speaker 1: the author of this roster, and this roster certainly is
Speaker 1: not as well constructed as you might like it to
Speaker 1: be here in twenty twenty six. Once again, we really
Speaker 1: appreciate all of you being here with us in the Chat,
Speaker 1: and we will be back tomorrow night with another edition
Speaker 1: of Snake's Territory at