Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Snake's Territory, part
Speaker 1: of the Fouls Territory Network. Be sure to like this video,
Speaker 1: subscribe to our YouTube channel, maybe leave us a five
Speaker 1: star review wherever you get your podcast. I am Jesse
Speaker 1: Friedman alongside Jack Summers and Jack I know the Diamondbacks
Speaker 1: were only on the road for six days, but it
Speaker 1: felt like a whole lot longer than that. Diamondbacks take
Speaker 1: two out of three in Atlanta to start things out.
Speaker 1: This series against the Boston Red Sox was eventful to
Speaker 1: say the least, but that just made it all the
Speaker 1: more important Jack that the Diamondbacks come up with a
Speaker 1: win in the finale of the series, and they were
Speaker 1: able to do exactly that.
Speaker 2: Heading into the road trip, I said that I would
Speaker 2: be more than happy with a three and three road
Speaker 2: trip in those two cities when is Alreays lose the series,
Speaker 2: and that's exactly what happened, and so I'll stick with
Speaker 2: satisfaction that that was the end result, even though the
Speaker 2: last few days were a little bit complicated.
Speaker 1: I think we can call it a successful road trip,
Speaker 1: right Jack, We can just it was a success. We
Speaker 1: can just move on as if nothing else happened, right, maybe, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: nothing nothing else to discuss, Dbacs. They get a win
Speaker 1: in this game on Wednesday, and people after the game
Speaker 1: were very open and honest about just how big of
Speaker 1: a game this was for the team. Brandon Fott mentioned
Speaker 1: that in his Postgume interview, talked about how it was
Speaker 1: very clear to everyone in the room that this was
Speaker 1: really really important for the Diamondbacks to win, not only
Speaker 1: because you never want to get swept in any series,
Speaker 1: but because of the circumstances of the last couple of days,
Speaker 1: how flat the Diamondbacks looked in the first couple of
Speaker 1: games of this series, and this was an all hands
Speaker 1: on deck sort of ordeal for the Diamondbacks. Tory Leavello
Speaker 1: emptied his bench in what was ultimately a.
Speaker 3: Ten inning game.
Speaker 1: Jordan Lawler originally hit seventh in this game and played
Speaker 1: center field, and his spot in the lineup was replaced
Speaker 1: three times over the course of this game, so Tory
Speaker 1: Leavello was truly using every player that he had at
Speaker 1: his disposal, and it was a close one jack. This
Speaker 1: was not exactly a free and easy downhill baseball sort
Speaker 1: of win. Diamondbacks trailed early on a couple of early
Speaker 1: Homers against Brandon fought, they were down to nothing. They
Speaker 1: took a three to two lead, which grew to a
Speaker 1: five to two lead, and then Mickey Gasper did what
Speaker 1: Mickey Gasper does against the Diamondbacks tied the game. D
Speaker 1: Backs ultimately come away with a seven to six win.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of fantastic individual performances, people stepping up
Speaker 2: up into you know, the situation and helping get things done,
Speaker 2: which was really impressive. I mean, look, this was a
Speaker 2: gritty win. This is not the formula for long term
Speaker 2: success to have to win a game in this manner,
Speaker 2: in this fashion, but you know, you look at some
Speaker 2: of the things that happen. Of course, is Gabrielle Marino
Speaker 2: once again just you know, delivering. I mean, he's just
Speaker 2: become a monster this year. To run double off the wall.
Speaker 2: You know he's going to put them in the game.
Speaker 2: Yesterday with the Grand Slam, and then you had an
Speaker 2: rb I double from Ryan Waldschmidt, so you know that
Speaker 2: that guy gave them a lead. And then of course,
Speaker 2: you know, you come back and you score a couple
Speaker 2: more runs the games five to two. You think you've
Speaker 2: got this, you know, and then unfortunately Brandon fock got
Speaker 2: nicked up, and he just had a really strange line, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, eight strikeouts, no walks. He looked like you
Speaker 2: had a really good sweeper. You know. He gave up
Speaker 2: a couple of early solo home runs and then he
Speaker 2: kind of looked like, Okay, you know, this is it
Speaker 2: and he's not going to really give up anything else.
Speaker 2: And then he got he got nailed in the in
Speaker 2: the sixth inning there and gave up the three run
Speaker 2: homer that gave up the tie. But you know, they
Speaker 2: hung in there and they came through and they won
Speaker 2: this game. And you know, Jose Fernandez, I mean, like
Speaker 2: for me, that's what stood out the most in long
Speaker 2: term thinking. Right, in the short term, there were other things.
Speaker 2: You know, Nolan Ronado had the go ahead base.
Speaker 1: Hit, which I believe was fifty one miles per hour
Speaker 1: off the bat if.
Speaker 2: Oh he blasted it. It's a little blooperd oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Gonzo was in the boot after all.
Speaker 3: It was only it was only fitting right.
Speaker 2: Right, But you know, I mean, look, Jose Jose Fernandez,
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, you hit a gapper and hustled
Speaker 2: in the second base for a hustle double. Then he banged,
Speaker 2: went off that wall deep and high off that green
Speaker 2: monster over in left center field, and then, you know,
Speaker 2: most impressive to me, as I tweeted out, I would
Speaker 2: have loved to have seen, just like anybody else, another
Speaker 2: double off the wall, you know, and score at least
Speaker 2: two runs there. But thinking about his improvement and development
Speaker 2: as a player, fell and off a couple of tough pitches,
Speaker 2: taking a couple of tough pitches, and working a basis
Speaker 2: loaded walk to give them an insurance run, which ultimately
Speaker 2: they truly needed. It was the most impressive thing to me,
Speaker 2: I guess, developmental wise, long term wise, because I have
Speaker 2: a feeling that we're going to see a lot of
Speaker 2: Jose Fernandez over the final six weeks of the season.
Speaker 1: You and I had had some discussions offline about the
Speaker 1: decision to bring Fernandez to the majors, and we were
Speaker 1: looking at his numbers down in Triple A, and frankly,
Speaker 1: I kind of made the point like we don't see
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks call up guys from Triple A very often
Speaker 1: who have an eighty five WRC plus You're talking about
Speaker 1: a guy who's been a fairly far below average hitter
Speaker 1: at Triple A. And yet Jose Fernandez, I mean we
Speaker 1: saw glimpses of it early in the season. The tools
Speaker 1: are absolutely there. He has a great arm, he has
Speaker 1: elite level bat speed, he has elite level sprint speed.
Speaker 1: There's a lot to like about his game, and there
Speaker 1: are things that he is capable of doing that a
Speaker 1: lot of players on this team are not, And we
Speaker 1: were able to see the best part of him in
Speaker 1: this game. As you said, couple of hard hit balls
Speaker 1: that key at bad in the tenth inning was enormous
Speaker 1: as well. So he's one of the guys who absolutely
Speaker 1: could step in and maybe play a big role as
Speaker 1: things continue to be in flux with Cautel Marte. Another
Speaker 1: player that probably deserves some shine offensively is Lars Neutbar.
Speaker 1: You mentioned earlier the Dbacks tacking on a couple of
Speaker 1: important runs. That was because Lars Neutbar hit a pinch hit,
Speaker 1: two run home run. It was not a cheap shot,
Speaker 1: it was one hundred and ten miles per hour off
Speaker 1: the bat and man, especially if katel Marte is not
Speaker 1: going to be in the equation, or even if he is,
Speaker 1: the d Bacs really need large new Bar to get
Speaker 1: going offensively. His ops for the team, I think still
Speaker 1: starts with a five. There's a ways to go there,
Speaker 1: but it was really good to see that swing from him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean at this point, look, the team has
Speaker 2: to the players and the coaches have to proceed as
Speaker 2: if this is it. They're going to have to find
Speaker 2: their way on their own without katel Marte. Now, if
Speaker 2: he comes back and you know, of offenses are mended
Speaker 2: and he plays well and all those you know, I
Speaker 2: guess fairy tale thoughts, then great. But I think already
Speaker 2: there's a sense of reality that is set in that
Speaker 2: they have to just put tune it out. They need
Speaker 2: to completely tune out all the noise and just proceed
Speaker 2: as if you know, he had a season ending injury
Speaker 2: or something thing which happens all the time in baseball,
Speaker 2: you know, and they have to believe in themselves that
Speaker 2: they can go forward and do this and still make
Speaker 2: the postseason even without caatel Marte. And so from that standpoint,
Speaker 2: you know, getting the bad taste of the previous two beatdowns,
Speaker 2: no the way to put that, and then also being
Speaker 2: able to get on a plane fly back to Phoenix,
Speaker 2: and you know, they have to guard themselves up. I mean,
Speaker 2: they know that everyone's going to be crawling all over
Speaker 2: Chase Field. The media is going to be crawling all
Speaker 2: over the clubhouse and the press conferences, and there's going
Speaker 2: to be a lot of questions asked, and you know,
Speaker 2: they've got to find a way to just tune all
Speaker 2: that out and go in and do their jobs.
Speaker 3: Tory Lavello was asked after the game about.
Speaker 1: Just how big of a win this was for the team,
Speaker 1: and I thought his comments there were telling. He said,
Speaker 1: the Congo line at the end of this game was
Speaker 1: a special moment for me that I'll never for get.
Speaker 1: He talked about how given the venue, given the opponent,
Speaker 1: and the circumstances of the last couple of days, I mean,
Speaker 1: those are big words from Tory Levello, moment he'll never
Speaker 1: forget in a managerial career that spans about a decade
Speaker 1: at this point, a coaching career that goes well beyond that,
Speaker 1: I mean, this win seemed to have a lot of
Speaker 1: significance for this team. And Toy was also asked about like,
Speaker 1: can you guys win without Katel Marte? You did today,
Speaker 1: but like what is this going to look like moving forward?
Speaker 1: And Tory gave the answer you'd probably expect. He said,
Speaker 1: We're going to be fine no matter who's in the lineup.
Speaker 1: We've got twenty six engaged dogs out there that want
Speaker 1: to win a baseball game. And that's all I care about.
Speaker 1: And one thing that I will say about Tory Leavello,
Speaker 1: even though I know there's all sorts of you know,
Speaker 1: he's a polarizing subject to say the least right now,
Speaker 1: but I think that Tory Leavello has the ability to
Speaker 1: help the Diamondbacks focus on the things that really matter
Speaker 1: right now. I think that that is one of his strengths.
Speaker 1: It's something that we've learned about him as a manager
Speaker 1: over the years, is that I think he helps players
Speaker 1: to be the best versions of themselves and to put
Speaker 1: those sorts of distractions aside, particularly a really messy situation
Speaker 1: like this one.
Speaker 3: So I mean, we'll.
Speaker 1: See, I'm not going to say that, you know, with certainly,
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks have a lot to prove here over the
Speaker 1: next five or six weeks of how they respond to
Speaker 1: this and what this is going to look like. Maybe
Speaker 1: coateell Marte does return at this at some point here,
Speaker 1: but I think Tory Leavello is probably going to help
Speaker 1: these guys stay on track and focus on what really
Speaker 1: matters right now.
Speaker 2: Well, as we often say, you know, momentum is the
Speaker 2: next day starter. Yeah right, and you know that's all
Speaker 2: all it'll take is a good start, you know, by
Speaker 2: the red starter on Friday night, if it shuts down
Speaker 2: the offense and they're quiet, Oh, they're flat, they're you know,
Speaker 2: they're out of it. And you know, a couple if
Speaker 2: they press a little bit and make a couple of
Speaker 2: defensive eras you know, oh, their heads are not in
Speaker 2: the game. And you know all of that. So I
Speaker 2: think that clearly, you know, they were impacted mentally and
Speaker 2: emotionally by everything that was going on around them the
Speaker 2: first two games of this series. They were also impacted
Speaker 2: by the fact that their starting pitchers got blown out
Speaker 2: of the water right out, you know, very early in
Speaker 2: their starts, you know. But they went down early today too,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean the first pitch of the game
Speaker 2: was a home solo home run, and then there was
Speaker 2: another home run and they were down to nothing. But
Speaker 2: they fought back today and I think they just showed
Speaker 2: themselves like, Okay, you know, this is what we're going
Speaker 2: to have to do here. So how far they can
Speaker 2: go without catel Marte without twenty one homers and sixty
Speaker 2: seven is in a seven to sixty ops in the
Speaker 2: middle of their lineup is a good question. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, they're gonna need a lot of different people
Speaker 2: to step up, and they got that today. They're gonna
Speaker 2: need a lot more of it.
Speaker 1: A couple of final notes from this game for me.
Speaker 1: Jonathan Lewisiga was big out of the Diamondbacks bullpen tonight.
Speaker 1: He got six outs on sixteen pitches in the ninth
Speaker 1: and tenth innings. He did technically give up a run,
Speaker 1: but it was unearned. It was just the ghost runner
Speaker 1: there and the tenth inning that didn't wind up being meaningful.
Speaker 1: Good day for the Diamondbacks bullpen on the whole. And
Speaker 1: then Ildomar Vargas also made a really nice defensive play
Speaker 1: to start out that tenth inning and just kind of
Speaker 1: set the tone there. It felt like the Red Sox
Speaker 1: just kind of rolled over. I guess literally they rolled
Speaker 1: over the next couple of bitches from Jonathan Mawiseiga and
Speaker 1: that was that was the end of the game. So
Speaker 1: just a really nice complete win for the Diamondbacks, something
Speaker 1: that was very sorely needed. Brandon fought a weird game
Speaker 1: from him. He also had seventy whiffs, though for the
Speaker 1: first time since twenty twenty four, his stuff looked really
Speaker 1: sharp for I felt like most of the game, and
Speaker 1: yet he also threw a few pitches that got hit
Speaker 1: kind of hard, very bizarre. He had not allowed a
Speaker 1: single home run since returning from Triple A, and then
Speaker 1: he gives up three home runs in one game in Boston.
Speaker 1: I guess that's baseball jack, That's just the way it
Speaker 1: goes sometimes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, x FIP will eventually win
Speaker 2: out right. I think that for anybody that doesn't know
Speaker 2: what that joke was. X FIP is fielding independent pitching
Speaker 2: the expected fielding independent pitching, where home runs are basically
Speaker 2: adjusted to the average home run per flyball rate. So
Speaker 2: if you give up a lot of flyball outs, your
Speaker 2: x FIP is maybe going to be higher than your FIP.
Speaker 2: If you know, you haven't been giving up that many
Speaker 2: home runs a lot of fly a lot of deep flyballs,
Speaker 2: your fit might look good. Are all getting caught, But
Speaker 2: x FIP says, yeah, well you might be getting a
Speaker 2: little lucky here on some of those homers, And you know,
Speaker 2: so maybe a couple of them should be getting over
Speaker 2: the wall. So that's what that joke was about for
Speaker 2: anyone not familiar with But you can always go to
Speaker 2: fangrafts and go to their glossary and look up their
Speaker 2: pitching stats and look up FIP and x FIP always
Speaker 2: suggests that.
Speaker 1: Well. On that note, Brandon Fopp, Brandon fots x FIP
Speaker 1: for today's start was two point sixty seven. So as
Speaker 1: they're saying x FIP, you used this start very favorably.
Speaker 1: Some of the other metrics not quite so much. But
Speaker 1: Brandon Fox gave the Diamondbacks at least enough to get
Speaker 1: out of this game with a win, and considering how
Speaker 1: good he's been since coming back from trimple A, it
Speaker 1: felt like it was time for the team to kind
Speaker 1: of pick him up after all of the times that
Speaker 1: he's picked them up here over the past few weeks.
Speaker 2: You're making me look it up now because I need
Speaker 2: to see what it is here to date.
Speaker 3: It's four to five.
Speaker 1: His x FIP is f two five, his ERA is
Speaker 1: three three nine, his FIP is three point nine to nine,
Speaker 1: so his ex FIP is actually still it's higher than
Speaker 1: all of the other r estimators, so you could argue
Speaker 1: the fought has still been on the luckier side when
Speaker 1: it comes to preventing home runs. But you know, pretty
Speaker 1: close to what you'd expect.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's more or less normalized, neutralized regress
Speaker 2: to the meat.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 1: We have a whole lot more to get to in
Speaker 1: this episode. We're going to check on the standings. We
Speaker 1: of course are going to dive into they could tell
Speaker 1: Marte situation and the updates we've gotten since our last episode.
Speaker 1: So don't go anywhere. We'll be back on Snake's territory
Speaker 1: right after this.
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Speaker 1: We are back here on Sinks Territory. Really appreciate all
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Speaker 1: So thank you to all of you for supporting the show.
Speaker 1: Really means a lot to us that you spend as
Speaker 1: much time here with us on Snake's territory as you
Speaker 1: do well, Jack. The Katel Marte situation continues to develop.
Speaker 1: I guess we'll start with this note from not this note,
Speaker 1: this note from John Morosi over on Twitter. Morosi tweeted
Speaker 1: out earlier on Wednesday. This was Wednesday morning, a note
Speaker 1: from Katel Marte's agent, and it reads as follows. He
Speaker 1: is currently managing a personal matter and it will and
Speaker 1: will be undergoing an MRI on his knee tomorrow. Kotel
Speaker 1: appreciates the unwavering support from fans, teammates, the Diamondbacks organization,
Speaker 1: and Tory LEVELO during this time. He remains optimistic about
Speaker 1: his recovery and looks forward to returning to the field
Speaker 1: to contribute to the team as soon as possible. My
Speaker 1: guess is most of you watching or listening have probably
Speaker 1: already seen or heard this note from Marte's agent. But yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll start our conversation there, Jack, What was your reaction
Speaker 1: to seeing this?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean it very much looked like agents speak, right,
Speaker 2: It looked like damage control. It also looked to me
Speaker 2: like maybe somebody kind of finally got through to him
Speaker 2: and got him to kind of step back from the
Speaker 2: ledge a little bit with all of this. Look, that
Speaker 2: statement doesn't tell us anything, right, And Mike Kaysen was
Speaker 2: on the radio today and we didn't really learn very
Speaker 2: much new, and so all we're left to do is
Speaker 2: either speculate and wait or keep our mouths shut and wait.
Speaker 2: But you know, I have thoughts, just like everybody else.
Speaker 2: I have been trying to gather information and do as
Speaker 2: much due diligence as I can. We've had friend of
Speaker 2: the show, El Gallo, kind of nudge me in a
Speaker 2: direction of, you know, looking a little closer into what's
Speaker 2: been coming out of the Dominican Republic and the reports there.
Speaker 2: And you know, they are credible journalists that have reported that,
Speaker 2: you know, Marte wanted to be released or wanted to
Speaker 2: be DFAD. But you know it's hard to say like
Speaker 2: that something get lost in translation there, and that's not
Speaker 2: going to happen. I mean, the Diamondbacks aren't going to
Speaker 2: do that, so it doesn't just didn't seem like a
Speaker 2: very realistic report from that perspective. But then there's some
Speaker 2: other radio reports where there's you know, people claiming to
Speaker 2: have inside sources with his family, you know, saying that
Speaker 2: he doesn't want to play for the Diamondbacks anymore, and
Speaker 2: the falling out between him and Tory is you know,
Speaker 2: not navigable and so forth. Who knows, right, I like,
Speaker 2: I can't say that any of that's true, but I'm
Speaker 2: acknowledging it because it's out there, and I'm sure that
Speaker 2: at least half our listeners have heard some of this
Speaker 2: kind of you know, trickling around if you're active in
Speaker 2: social media. What I will say, and I'm going to
Speaker 2: ask Jesse to put that on the screen, is Tory
Speaker 2: Lavello's willingness to work very closely with kateel Marte on
Speaker 2: days off and being in tune with his body was
Speaker 2: a key reason why he agreed to the extension that
Speaker 2: he did so. On April second of twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: ktel Marte signed over one hundred million dollar contract extension
Speaker 2: that takes him up to twenty thirty one if he
Speaker 2: exercises the player option. A big chunk of that forty
Speaker 2: six million is deferred, So you know why did Katel
Speaker 2: signed that contract. It's considered team friendly at the time
Speaker 2: when asked, this is from the report that Steve Gilbert
Speaker 2: filed on that day of the signing. When asked what
Speaker 2: he liked so much about Arizona, Marte sided the coaching staff,
Speaker 2: the medical staff, and the organization in general. He also
Speaker 2: talked about his close relationship with manager Tory Leavello, whose
Speaker 2: first year managing the DBAs was twenty seventeen. Now Here
Speaker 2: comes the exact quote from Catel and let you know
Speaker 2: exactly what his priorities were. This was the main answer
Speaker 2: that he gave when he was asked, why did you
Speaker 2: sign this extension? We came to the organization around the
Speaker 2: same time, said Marte. I feel like at this point
Speaker 2: that Tory understands me really well physically. If I need
Speaker 2: a day off, I don't have to talk much. Tory
Speaker 2: does a good job of feeling that and giving me
Speaker 2: a day I don't want to lose what I've earned
Speaker 2: with Tory so far, So you know that's the player
Speaker 2: right there, very clearly spelling out his motivations at the time.
Speaker 2: Time of the extension. Now, obviously since then there have
Speaker 2: been other incidents. There was the incident last year at
Speaker 2: the All Star Break, and then this year of course
Speaker 2: this week, you know, over not showing up to the ballpark. Now,
Speaker 2: what happened in that initial contact between Tory and Katel
Speaker 2: one can only speculate. But the speculation leads me down
Speaker 2: a path of thinking that Tory push Kutel to play
Speaker 2: because Nolan was hurt and he really needed him, and
Speaker 2: Katel didn't want to play because his knee was bothering him,
Speaker 2: and Tory pushed on him pretty hard and got exactly
Speaker 2: the kind of response that we probably would expect in
Speaker 2: this situation where you tend to lose a player like this.
Speaker 2: So I'm kind of out there on a limb speculating
Speaker 2: on a lot of stuff I don't know. At the
Speaker 2: end of the day, Mike Hazen is going to meet
Speaker 2: with Katel Marte sometime tomorrow after his EMA. One other
Speaker 2: key point from what Mike said today was that Kutel
Speaker 2: was flying back today and having the MRI tomorrow, or
Speaker 2: flying back tomorrow to have the MRI tomorrow. And you know,
Speaker 2: so where's he been, right? Did he leave Boston, not
Speaker 2: go back to Phoenix right away, and he's just coming
Speaker 2: back to Phoenix. Now. If that's the case, you know,
Speaker 2: maybe he flew down to the Dominican Republican who knows,
Speaker 2: you know where he went. But either the team knows
Speaker 2: and they're not saying, which means that he would have
Speaker 2: probably went to the Dominican and they didn't want to
Speaker 2: have the story out there that oh, Ktel flew back
Speaker 2: to the Dominican Republic again, or they really don't know
Speaker 2: where he's at. Remember last year, they weren't exactly the
Speaker 2: organization was not that forthcoming with all of this logistics
Speaker 2: until it kind of came out little by little. We had,
Speaker 2: like you know, pulling teeth to get it. So we'll
Speaker 2: see what all comes out here. But I think there's
Speaker 2: a fairly deep significant rift here, And from reading that,
Speaker 2: I know I've been going on a long time here,
Speaker 2: but from reading that statement, it just looks to me
Speaker 2: like somebody's pulling Katel back in from the ledge and saying, hey,
Speaker 2: get back to Phoenix, go sit down and talk to Mike.
Speaker 2: You guys got to work this out because he's not
Speaker 2: getting DFA. Now, what will happen is if he doesn't
Speaker 2: play again, one of two things are going to happen.
Speaker 2: He's going to be on a restricted list or suspended
Speaker 2: for the rest of the season without pay, or if
Speaker 2: he really does have a knee injury, they'll just put
Speaker 2: him on a sixty day I l and you know,
Speaker 2: or put him on the injured list and that's it
Speaker 2: for the rest of the season.
Speaker 1: It is striking to look back at that quote that
Speaker 1: Kittel gave when he signed the extension and see just
Speaker 1: how clearly that was a big part of the deal
Speaker 1: for him was his relationship with Tory Leavello. The fact
Speaker 1: that Tory Leavello is willing to give him days off
Speaker 1: when he he says, he doesn't have to talk much,
Speaker 1: right Like, there seems to be just a lot of
Speaker 1: unspoken communication I guess between him and Tory Leavello, where
Speaker 1: Toy just just gets him and is willing to give
Speaker 1: him those days when he asked for them, or I
Speaker 1: guess even when maybe he doesn't ask for them, and
Speaker 1: Tory maybe gets out in front of that from time
Speaker 1: to time, and even at the time Jack, I mean,
Speaker 1: I remember a few years ago when that happened, and
Speaker 1: it was a little bit puzzling at the time, like
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks did not need to extend kateell Marte.
Speaker 3: Then they already had.
Speaker 1: Him under club control through twenty twenty eight on one
Speaker 1: of the most team friendly contracts in all of baseball.
Speaker 1: And I don't remember thinking that the contract was way
Speaker 1: too big or I mean, it wasn't completely unreasonable. It's
Speaker 1: still a relatively team friendly dealer. At least it looked
Speaker 1: like it at the time, but it was just unnecessary.
Speaker 1: It was like, well, why are you you extending this player,
Speaker 1: you know, from twenty twenty nine to twenty thirty one,
Speaker 1: when he's going to be in his mid thirties and
Speaker 1: you just don't really know what to expect. Then very
Speaker 1: possibly he's going to be a designated hitter at that point,
Speaker 1: and that just adds another layer to this complicated relationship
Speaker 1: between him and the organization. Did the Diamondbacks feel they
Speaker 1: needed to do that in order to maintain that rapport
Speaker 1: with katel Marte. I don't know, but looking back at
Speaker 1: what we.
Speaker 2: Know about him now, no, what we know about him now,
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, at considering how well he produced
Speaker 2: in twenty four it's not hard to imagine him being
Speaker 2: very dissatisfied with his contract and how that may play out,
Speaker 2: you know, on the field.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 1: Mike Hazen in his interview that you referenced earlier, he
Speaker 1: said that he was hopeful that Kateel Marte will play
Speaker 1: again in twenty twenty six. He said, I'm going to
Speaker 1: say I'm hopeful when when asked that question. But the
Speaker 1: fact that Mike is speaking in those terms, I think
Speaker 1: really in and of itself, speaks to just how little
Speaker 1: clarity there is on this right now. That could tell
Speaker 1: Marte he might have played his last game as a
Speaker 1: member of the Diamondbacks. Like, I don't think I was
Speaker 1: thinking in those terms when we were talking about this
Speaker 1: a couple of days ago. I'm kind of thinking in
Speaker 1: those terms now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know for sure. I mean it's he's
Speaker 2: going to have to find a way to fix this, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, Kaitel has to fix this. He's the one
Speaker 2: that didn't show up for work. And if it really
Speaker 2: was about your knee, you go into you go into
Speaker 2: the ballpark and you go get treatment on your knee,
Speaker 2: you don't just say I'm not coming. Now there's all
Speaker 2: the you know, he's dealing with personal issues. Well again, well,
Speaker 2: I'll go back to what I said on Monday night.
Speaker 3: Got to communicate, Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2: You got to communicate what that is to the team
Speaker 2: and convince them that this personal issue is going to
Speaker 2: preclude you from being able to do your job for
Speaker 2: a little bit, you know. And I'm sure that if
Speaker 2: he'd done that, they would be as empathetic as possible
Speaker 2: and understanding as possible. But you know, yeah, do communication
Speaker 2: wasn't forthcoming, and so you know, here we are.
Speaker 1: The Diamondbacks have a lot of questions to answer about
Speaker 1: Katel Marte. I imagine they're going to have to give
Speaker 1: answers to a lot of these questions. Like at some
Speaker 1: point I think we're I'd think we're going to find
Speaker 1: out like where kateel Marte is right now, where he's
Speaker 1: been the last couple of days. I can't really imagine
Speaker 1: this story playing out in us not getting answers to
Speaker 1: those questions eventually. But yeah, Mike Hazen did not reveal
Speaker 1: a whole lot in his interview today. Tory Leavello has
Speaker 1: not revealed a whole lot either, and he's going to
Speaker 1: have an MRI tomorrow. Jack and uh, I guess I
Speaker 1: guess we'll see. It's hard to know how much how
Speaker 1: much this knee injury, the potential of a knee injury
Speaker 1: was really a factor here. Is that like a separate
Speaker 1: issue from what happened the other day? You know, it
Speaker 1: doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to not
Speaker 1: show up to work due to an injury, because like
Speaker 1: that's where you get treatment for that injury. So it's
Speaker 1: all a very puzzling situation. And yeah, if you're Tory Leavello,
Speaker 1: if you're Mike Hazen, if you're any player on this
Speaker 1: team right now, you're having to answer a whole lot
Speaker 1: of uncomfortable, uncomfortable questions.
Speaker 2: Right, Okay, Well said my piece, And I'm going to
Speaker 2: have to say more because this story isn't over just
Speaker 2: the only on a personal note and just certainly isn't
Speaker 2: about me. But I this is bumming me out, it
Speaker 2: just as bumming the whole thing is just a bummer,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean, I want them all to play well.
Speaker 2: I want them all to be happy and healthy, you know,
Speaker 2: And I hate to see the players and coaches go
Speaker 2: through this. I hate to see the fans go through this.
Speaker 2: I hate to see all the rancor and discord and
Speaker 2: toxicity revolving around this, and people attacking each other over it.
Speaker 2: This whole thing is a real bummer. I've been feeling
Speaker 2: pretty sad about the whole thing just for all of
Speaker 2: those reasons.
Speaker 3: I don't think you're alone in that.
Speaker 1: Certainly, the vibes around the Arizona Diamondbacks organization have not
Speaker 1: been fantastic, to say the least, over the past forty
Speaker 1: eight hours. We have more to get to in this
Speaker 1: episode beyond they could tell Marte's situation. We're going to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the first couple games of
Speaker 1: this series, really about Merrill Kelly and kind of his
Speaker 1: status right now as he continues to struggle. And we'll
Speaker 1: look ahead to the weekends series against the Cincinnati reds
Speaker 1: Aohennio Suarez returning to the desert, which should be fun.
Speaker 1: So don't go anywhere. We'll be back right after this.
Speaker 1: Here on Snake's territory.
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Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: Jack Merril Kelly was not exactly at the top of
Speaker 1: his game on Tuesday, unfortunately. Four plus innings from him
Speaker 1: seven hits, six runs, four walks, and two strikeouts. He
Speaker 1: threw eighty six pitches, not a whole lot of hard
Speaker 1: contact against him only four hard hit balls out of seventeen.
Speaker 1: The average exit below against him was only eighty four
Speaker 1: miles per hour, so there were kind of a lot
Speaker 1: of dinks and dunks that did drop in for hits.
Speaker 1: At the same time, the walk numbers just continue to
Speaker 1: be too high, and he has not been a reliable
Speaker 1: starting pitcher for the Diamondbacks here in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you tweeted something out about his zone percentages the
Speaker 2: other day, you know, and it's really distressing to look
Speaker 2: at just how bad that's been over his last I
Speaker 2: don't know however many starts, and you know, we're just
Speaker 2: you can just see it developing early in the starts. Armside,
Speaker 2: miss armside, miss boom boom boom, Here we go, you know,
Speaker 2: nibble nibble, nibble, here we go. And it's just, you know,
Speaker 2: he's as frustrated and bummed out about it as anybody.
Speaker 2: And he talked about that after his start. I mean,
Speaker 2: he has a calendar, you know, it's August eighteenth, when
Speaker 2: he's when he's having putting up that outing. He's had
Speaker 2: plenty of time to figure out his season, and it
Speaker 2: looked like he did in July. But he's you know,
Speaker 2: just gone right back to unreliable Meryl. I mean, we
Speaker 2: went from Meryl to mainstay to Merrill stay home, you know,
Speaker 2: in way too short a period of time. Here, you know,
Speaker 2: two year, forty million dollar deal, and you know, I
Speaker 2: have people text me and saying, so are the Diamondbacks
Speaker 2: ever going to let him throwing off innings next year
Speaker 2: to vest that option for twenty eight with one hundred
Speaker 2: and seventy innings. If he throws next year, then he's
Speaker 2: vested for twenty eight. So you know, I mean, it's
Speaker 2: it's tough. I mean, it's just the whole thing. If
Speaker 2: you look at Zach's, you know, innings pitched in era,
Speaker 2: you look at Meryl's innings pitched in era, and you
Speaker 2: smush those two together and see what looks like. You know,
Speaker 2: for the amount of money that you're spending, it's amazing
Speaker 2: that they've managed to piece it together. But now, you know,
Speaker 2: you have Mitch Bratt who was not able to follow
Speaker 2: up as good as outing, you know, and find some consistency.
Speaker 2: You have Meryl, who you can't depend on. So you know,
Speaker 2: you have three guys in your rotation that you can
Speaker 2: depend on, and one of them all by the way
Speaker 2: just gave up five runs, so you know it's it's
Speaker 2: going to be tough. I mean, they're going to be
Speaker 2: I saw another report on Corbyn Burns is expected back,
Speaker 2: you know, the first week of September. How has he even
Speaker 2: thrown a live hitters yere?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that still remains baffling to me too.
Speaker 2: I don't buy it. I don't buy it. I mean,
Speaker 2: or if he is, like it's going to be a
Speaker 2: disaster if he's thrown to live hitters. That just happened.
Speaker 2: I didn't get the updates on that, okay, but you know,
Speaker 2: as of less than a week ago, he was still
Speaker 2: just throwing bullpens and had not thrown the live hitters.
Speaker 2: So maybe in the last few days he threw the
Speaker 2: live hitters. Maybe after live hitters he can go for
Speaker 2: a game, you know, in the Bridge camp. But I mean,
Speaker 2: there's just no the calendar doesn't permit Corbyn Burns to
Speaker 2: be out on the mound the first week of September
Speaker 2: as anything other than a relief pitcher.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I mean, if.
Speaker 2: You're talking about a viable starting pitcher that you can
Speaker 2: at least send out for his first outing to give
Speaker 2: you four innings. That's got to be mid September at
Speaker 2: the earliest, just looking at the calendar. I don't know
Speaker 2: how he gets there or E'll see, I could be wrong.
Speaker 1: Circling back to Marrow real quick. You mentioned the tweet
Speaker 1: I put out on his zone persones. I'll throw that
Speaker 1: on the screen real quick.
Speaker 3: Merril.
Speaker 1: Last season through about forty eight percent of his pitches
Speaker 1: in the strike zone. League average is right around there
Speaker 1: at forty eight percent as well. You look at that
Speaker 1: number in his start on Tuesday, it was thirty eight percent,
Speaker 1: thirty nine percent in his start before that, forty percent
Speaker 1: in his start before that, and then about thirty six
Speaker 1: and a half back on August second. So yeah, I just,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe the stuff is diminished, and in some
Speaker 1: way it doesn't look like this stuff is all that
Speaker 1: different from at least the public facing information we have.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he just needs to be able to throw
Speaker 1: the ball in the strike zone more often. And I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's nibbling necessarily, Like I think he
Speaker 1: wants to throw the ball in the zone and at
Speaker 1: least that's what it feels like to me, and he
Speaker 1: just is not able to. And that's why you're seeing
Speaker 1: all of these arm misses, these arm side misses over
Speaker 1: and over again. Those are just misfire, whereas mechanics are
Speaker 1: not working the way that they should. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure this is MARYL. Kelly being afraid to challenge hitters.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's part of it as well, but you know,
Speaker 1: if it is, he's he's just going to have to
Speaker 1: get over that and start attacking the zone because there
Speaker 1: are very very few pitchers, especially starting pitchers, who can
Speaker 1: be successful throwing the ball in the zone only about
Speaker 1: you know, thirty eight, thirty nine, forty percent of the time,
Speaker 1: and certainly MARYL. Kelly throwing around ninety two miles per hour.
Speaker 1: He's never been one of those guys, and I don't
Speaker 1: think he's ever going to be one of those guys either.
Speaker 2: Right by the way, just you know, for our listeners,
Speaker 2: I want to make sure that the distinction between zone
Speaker 2: percentage and strike percentage is clear because strike percentage includes hits.
Speaker 2: So even if the ball is outside the zone and
Speaker 2: the guy reached out and you know, hit a dink
Speaker 2: out into the left center field or whatever, like Meryl
Speaker 2: gave up seven hits. So of the fifty three strikes
Speaker 2: that he had seven of those were actually base hits,
Speaker 2: whereas zone percentage is the actual strike zone and nine
Speaker 2: percentage of pitchers that go into the zone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is a very good point of clarification. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the number of strikes he threw in that game the
Speaker 1: other day wasn't that bad. He did get a decent
Speaker 1: amount of chase outside the zone from Red Sox hitters.
Speaker 1: But he's just become very reliant on that chase in
Speaker 1: order to get out because he's just not in the
Speaker 1: zone very often. So that's going to be a key
Speaker 1: for Merril Kelly. Hopefully he's able to turn things around.
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks very very much need that from him in order
Speaker 1: to get where they want to get down the stretch here.
Speaker 1: Speaking of that, will go ahead and look at the standings.
Speaker 1: The Diamondbacks are sixty seven and sixty one. After this
Speaker 1: win on Wednesday over Boston, they're a game out. The
Speaker 1: San Diego Padres lost their game to the Mets today.
Speaker 1: They actually lost that series to the New York Mets.
Speaker 1: So the Padres cooling off here at least a little bit.
Speaker 1: Phillies stay red hot. They win another game against the
Speaker 1: Miami Marlins. They had the sweep over Minnesota over the weekend.
Speaker 1: They are playing very good baseball right now at seventy
Speaker 1: to fifty eight. They're now three games ahead of the
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks in that second wild card spot, and then the
Speaker 1: Chicago Cubs are far pretty far out of reach at
Speaker 1: this point, holding the top wild card spot. Cardinals and
Speaker 1: Marlins not too far behind the Diamondbacks to three games
Speaker 1: out and four games out, respectively. So this just kind
Speaker 1: of underscores though, how big of a win this was
Speaker 1: for the Diamondbacks if they had if they had lost
Speaker 1: this game to Boston, they would be two games behind
Speaker 1: the Padres, four games behind the Phillies, and only a
Speaker 1: game in front of the Saint Louis Cardinals, who would
Speaker 1: really be right on their heels at that point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the five point thirty one win percentage for the Padres,
Speaker 2: that works out to eighty six wins, Phillies five to
Speaker 2: forty seven. That's almost eighty nine to eighty eight point
Speaker 2: something close to eighty nine wins. So, you know, I
Speaker 2: think that it's going to take at least eighty eight
Speaker 2: wins to get in, you know, and that's going to
Speaker 2: include probably having to take two out of three the
Speaker 2: last weekend the series fund the Padres to get in.
Speaker 2: That's what I think is gonna happen. And they may
Speaker 2: not get that far, right Like if they may falter
Speaker 2: and that final weekend may not even matter. But if
Speaker 2: they're getting in, it's coming down to the final weekend
Speaker 2: for sure. There's no way that the Diamondbacks are going
Speaker 2: to clinch a wildcard spot before the final three games
Speaker 2: of the season. I just don't see it.
Speaker 1: Well, it just wouldn't feel right for the Arizona Diamondbacks
Speaker 1: to have their postseason fate determined at any point before
Speaker 1: like September twenty sixth, right, Like we're not supposed to
Speaker 1: know the answer to that any sooner. So that's the
Speaker 1: way that they've rolled the past few years. It looks
Speaker 1: like things are trending that direction this season as well.
Speaker 1: Hitching matchups this weekend, Jack the Diamondbacks miss Chase Burns,
Speaker 1: which is very helpful considering season he's had for Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: It's looking like it will be Eduardo Rodriguez against Nicolodolo
Speaker 1: in the opener on Friday, than Michael Soroka and Rhet
Speaker 1: Louder on Saturday, and then Mitch Bratt and Andrew Abbott
Speaker 1: on Sunday. In the finale, d Backs get a lefty
Speaker 1: here in two out of the three games, which always
Speaker 1: seems really big for them. Rhet Louder, the one right
Speaker 1: handed pitcher that they will get in this series, the
Speaker 1: one right handed starter that they will get, and you
Speaker 1: could talk yourself into him being gettable. He has a
Speaker 1: five to one seven ERA this year. Granted, we've seen
Speaker 1: the d Backs struggle against those types of right handed pitchers,
Speaker 1: but this series lines up pretty well for them.
Speaker 2: What type of right handed pitchers the guys that throw
Speaker 2: at their right.
Speaker 1: Arm pretty much, Yeah, anyone that throws at their right arm.
Speaker 1: They've struggled against those guys this year. It's been a problem.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's funny. I was just thinking back
Speaker 2: a little bit to the Red Sox series and how
Speaker 2: the DBAX record against teams over five hundred amproved. But
Speaker 2: they're going to have to keep beating up on the
Speaker 2: sub five hundred teams now that they've got a few
Speaker 2: chances here. They can't let what happened to the Rockies
Speaker 2: happen to me. This is a must win series, absolutely
Speaker 2: a must win series. I'm not gonna say must sweep,
Speaker 2: you know, but they have to win this series. They
Speaker 2: have to look at a certain point, they need to
Speaker 2: go on a run, you know again where they're like,
Speaker 2: you know, twenty two and ten, Like they have to
Speaker 2: go on a run where they play seven, eight, ten
Speaker 2: games above five hundred, right, I mean eighty eight seventy
Speaker 2: twenty two then I don't know, I mean, it doesn't
Speaker 2: mean like they're going to do that the whole time.
Speaker 2: But eighty eight and seventy four, which doesn't even guarantee
Speaker 2: you getting in, right, that's fourteen games above five hundred.
Speaker 2: So you know they need to get on a run here,
Speaker 2: they really do. And you know the schedule Stiffen's up
Speaker 2: again right after the Red Series, so they need to
Speaker 2: keep some momentum here this weekend. This is a much
Speaker 2: win series.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, their strength of schedule the rest of
Speaker 1: the way grades out as being fairly favorable, but you
Speaker 1: look at it and it feels like just a mixed bag.
Speaker 1: It's like, yes, you've got three against Cincinnati, but then
Speaker 1: you've got three against the Cubs, and then you've got
Speaker 1: four against the Giants, but then you've got three against
Speaker 1: the Phillies, who are really hot. Right now, the Astros.
Speaker 1: After that, they're a good team. Then you've got the Royals,
Speaker 1: and then you have a team's couple of teams right
Speaker 1: in the middle with Texas and Miami, and then the
Speaker 1: Dbacks finished with the Yankees, which is gonna be a
Speaker 1: tough series. Yankees probably will still have something to play for.
Speaker 1: And then you've got three on the road against the
Speaker 1: Rockies and then those three huge games against San Diego
Speaker 1: to end the season. So going series by series, it
Speaker 1: doesn't really feel all that easy to me. It doesn't
Speaker 1: feel impossible, like it's not super difficult. There are other
Speaker 1: teams who have it worse. I know the Phillies in particular.
Speaker 1: Their schedule tightens up in September. But it is going
Speaker 1: to be a dogfight the rest of the way, no
Speaker 1: doubt on that front.
Speaker 3: That is.
Speaker 1: I guess everything we have, Jack, Are there any other
Speaker 1: any other thoughts or takeaways or topics you wanted to
Speaker 1: get to here?
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see Gino on Friday. Go say
Speaker 2: hello to him and get some good vibes there. We
Speaker 2: got to get some good vibes from Gino even though
Speaker 2: he's in Cincinnati. Now, you know, at least I'll get
Speaker 2: some good vibes. I go out and give him hug.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he hasn't been hasn't been quite the player with
Speaker 1: Cincinnati this year that we've seen the past couple of years.
Speaker 1: But he does still have eighteen home runs there, he
Speaker 1: has fifty runs batted in. The powers still there and
Speaker 1: the good vibes are absolutely still there as well as
Speaker 1: they always are with Gino.
Speaker 3: Be good to have him back at Chase.
Speaker 1: Feel we're hypothesizing the Dbacks will have like a little
Speaker 1: video montage or something. It feels like that would be appropriate.
Speaker 1: I know Gina wasn't a Diamondback for very long, but
Speaker 1: he did hit sixty six home runs in the span
Speaker 1: of a year and a half, which is.
Speaker 3: Sort of wild.
Speaker 1: So yeah, be good to have Gino Suarez back at
Speaker 1: Chase Field for sure, and a big series for the
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks as they continue to try to find their way
Speaker 1: into one of those NL wild card spots. Well, thank
Speaker 1: you to all of you for being with us on
Speaker 1: this episode. We really appreciate your time. As always, be
Speaker 1: sure to find us on Twitter. I am at Jesse
Speaker 1: and Friedman. Jack is at Sho Wizard fifty nine and
Speaker 1: our show is at Snake's Territory, do all the things
Speaker 1: that I said before, Like and subscribe, and leave a
Speaker 1: comment and leave us a review.
Speaker 3: On Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Speaker 1: We always really appreciate that, and we will be back
Speaker 1: with another episode of Snake's Territory very very soon