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 podcasts. I am Jesse
Speaker 1: Friedman alongside Jack Summers and Jack This was not great
Speaker 1: for the Arizona Diamondbacks. They have lost a series. First
Speaker 1: time they've lost a series in quite some time. I
Speaker 1: believe they had either one or split ten consecutive series.
Speaker 1: This time they're back in the lost column and it
Speaker 1: comes against no other team than the Colorado Rockies. Not
Speaker 1: not a great homestand for this Diamondbacks team.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean just stunning that they would lose a
Speaker 2: homestand to the Rockies.
Speaker 3: Obviously.
Speaker 2: I tried to take a glass half full approach in
Speaker 2: viewing this the night before, thinking well, okay, it's one game,
Speaker 2: it happens. But the way today's game went down, the
Speaker 2: way they lost it was probably one of the most
Speaker 2: painful losses for just about any Diamondbacks fan to watch,
Speaker 2: most aggravating. And you can pretty much sense too that
Speaker 2: Tory felt the same way in his postgame comments. I mean,
Speaker 2: he was really grinding through his presser.
Speaker 1: We'll get to the offense here in a second. Certainly
Speaker 1: the offense was a big part of the storyline that
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks had their opportunities in this game, for sure. But
Speaker 1: let's start with Merrill Kelly. Five innings from him, six hits,
Speaker 1: six runs, three walks, two strikeouts. He gave up a
Speaker 1: couple of very costly home runs, the biggest one coming
Speaker 1: in at the top of the second inning. D Backs
Speaker 1: had just put a run on the board, taken a
Speaker 1: one nothing lead in the bottom of the first, and
Speaker 1: then Brett Sullivan after the Rockies already got a run
Speaker 1: on the board in that inning, Brett Sullivan comes out
Speaker 1: of nowhere and hits a three run home run off
Speaker 1: the right field foul pole with two outs, and suddenly
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks were in a pretty big hole early on
Speaker 1: in this game. A couple of innings later, Zach vine
Speaker 1: who I will be honest, I have not thought about
Speaker 1: Zach Vien in quite some time. He was at one
Speaker 1: point a pretty big time Rockies prospect. Kind of disappeared
Speaker 1: here over the last several seasons, but he made his
Speaker 1: way back to the majors, and this was his first
Speaker 1: game back in twenty twenty six, he had a two
Speaker 1: run home run against Marrill Kelly in the fourth inning
Speaker 1: that gave the Rockies a six to one lead. And yes,
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks had their chances. Jack, We'll get to the
Speaker 1: offense in a moment, but Mary Kelly just has been
Speaker 1: inconsistent this season. I know there's been more good than
Speaker 1: bad recently, and I think we should keep that in mind.
Speaker 1: But this was a really rough one against a subpar
Speaker 1: offense in Colorado.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 2: Just as that second inning started, I saw a couple
Speaker 2: of Armside misses in one of the earlier at bats
Speaker 2: in the inning, and I'm like, not this again, you know,
Speaker 2: And I get when I start seeing just you know,
Speaker 2: armside misses, and he kind of gives like a little
Speaker 2: disgusted kick sideways when he when he knows he let
Speaker 2: it out there, And just right away, I'm like, he's
Speaker 2: gonna have.
Speaker 3: A tough game here. I can just tell you know
Speaker 3: that the.
Speaker 2: Home run of Sullivan, I mean, you know, he had
Speaker 2: gotten two outs, he had put two on, had gotten
Speaker 2: two outs.
Speaker 3: One was a line out.
Speaker 2: To Perdomo, and then he falls behind three and one
Speaker 2: and just like oh boy. And sure enough he just
Speaker 2: puts one in the left hand batter's happy zone down
Speaker 2: and in and Sullivan, you know, golfed it up off
Speaker 2: the foul hole. Just you know, the win expectancy for
Speaker 2: that was a twenty six percent change in that one
Speaker 2: swing right heading.
Speaker 3: You know, before he hit that home run, it.
Speaker 2: Was basically a fifty to fifty game, fifty point win
Speaker 2: percentage for the Diamondbacks. That one swing dropped him to
Speaker 2: twenty four point six percent. That was the single biggest
Speaker 2: event of the game when it comes to win probability.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. It was a big blow, no doubt.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately for Meryl, home runs have been a pretty
Speaker 1: big issue for him. He's now one point eight home
Speaker 1: runs per nine for the season, twenty five homers allowed
Speaker 1: in one hundred and twenty five innings. That's a that's
Speaker 1: a really big number when you look at you know,
Speaker 1: recent seasons for him. Last year, in one hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty four innings, Merril allowed twenty three home runs. So
Speaker 1: he's already above that here in twenty twenty six. And
Speaker 1: I think with Meryl Jack we've been We've been telling
Speaker 1: ourselves for a while, like, okay, even though he's not
Speaker 1: striking out a ton of guys, even though he's still
Speaker 1: walking a few more than you'd like, He's starting to
Speaker 1: get some softer contact. He's starting to get at least
Speaker 1: good results, even though he hasn't been pitching super deep
Speaker 1: into games unfortunately. Just as kind of an objective, I
Speaker 1: think if you, if you kind of separate yourself from
Speaker 1: what Meryl has meant to this organization the past few years,
Speaker 1: the reality is, I don't think anyone is looking at
Speaker 1: his numbers this season and seeing a pitcher that you
Speaker 1: really want pitching for you in a Pennant chase, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, the numbers just kind of are what they are.
Speaker 1: I mean, he has a five to eleven ERA, he
Speaker 1: has a five point seven to one FIP, he has
Speaker 1: a four point nine to eight x FIP. His expected ERA,
Speaker 1: I think is still well over six. That number has
Speaker 1: been way up there the whole season, and so I
Speaker 1: still don't really know what the solution is here. I
Speaker 1: know his VLO was down a little bit in this one,
Speaker 1: and maybe that was a factor. Yeah, I was a
Speaker 1: tick and a half. It was kind of it was
Speaker 1: kind of a lot. But still, I mean, you look
Speaker 1: at his stuff, you know, the movement the VLO for
Speaker 1: the entire season, it's not that different from a year ago.
Speaker 1: And I just keep going back to the zone rate,
Speaker 1: Like what percentage of Merrill Kelly's pitches is he throwing
Speaker 1: in the zone in this game? It was thirty nine percent,
Speaker 1: And that's just it's just way too low. And even
Speaker 1: as Kelly has gotten better results here in recent games,
Speaker 1: most of these games he's still he still just hasn't
Speaker 1: been throwing enough strikes. He's gotten away with it at times,
Speaker 1: but not in this game against the Rockies.
Speaker 2: Well, you know the Rockies broadcast. I mean I'm paraphrasing
Speaker 2: a little bit here, but essentially, you know, there was
Speaker 2: a comment Merrill just doesn't have the stuff.
Speaker 3: Anymore to do what he used to do.
Speaker 2: So he nibbles a lot, and if you're patient, you're
Speaker 2: going to get something to hit. And I think that,
Speaker 2: you know, that's part of it. I mean, obviously he's
Speaker 2: trying to nibble a lot of times. Those nibbles are
Speaker 2: actually not even very competitive pitches. But you know, if
Speaker 2: the hitters are patient, they're getting something to hit and
Speaker 2: they're doing a lot of damage on it. I know
Speaker 2: that the metrics and the things that we look at
Speaker 2: numerically probably tell us that the stuff isn't that much different.
Speaker 2: But the hitters are telling us the stuff is different.
Speaker 2: It's not as good hitters. Hitters are telling this by
Speaker 2: the swings that you're taking and the damage that you're doing.
Speaker 1: That's fair. I mean, I'm not here to say that,
Speaker 1: you know, the movement numbers and the vlow that we
Speaker 1: can see like that's the end all be all there.
Speaker 1: There certainly could be something more going on. I just
Speaker 1: keep going back to like, well, there's a big difference
Speaker 1: between a two to one count and a one to
Speaker 1: two count, you know, or three to one in two,
Speaker 1: and Merrill just keeps winding up on the wrong side
Speaker 1: of that over and over again. I think that can
Speaker 1: really have an outsized impact for you know, a picture
Speaker 1: of his type switching gears to the offense. The Diamondbacks
Speaker 1: set up plenty of chances to pick up Meryl in
Speaker 1: this one. Unfortunately, they they they made a comeback, they
Speaker 1: made it a little interesting, but they weren't able to
Speaker 1: come all the way back. They did score a run
Speaker 1: in the bottom half of the fifth inning that came
Speaker 1: on a Gabby Moreno RBI double. Corbyn Carroll hit a
Speaker 1: home run late as well. That was this one hundredth
Speaker 1: of his career, which was pretty cool to see. Man,
Speaker 1: it felt like the Diamondbacks had the bases loaded just
Speaker 1: about every inning, Jack and you know, they were able
Speaker 1: to get a run across here or there, but it
Speaker 1: just was not nearly enough. They wind up leaving fifteen
Speaker 1: on base in this game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, in the fifth inning when
Speaker 2: Gabby had that RBI double, he gets it done there. Paedomo,
Speaker 2: by the way, made a really nice hustle tag to
Speaker 2: get himself into scoring position on that. But you know,
Speaker 2: Nolan taps out with the bases loaded with a week
Speaker 2: round out to short in the sixth inning, you know,
Speaker 2: with two outs, Corbyn Walks just missed a three run homer.
Speaker 3: It hit went over the bullpen. You know, Gaby gets called.
Speaker 2: Looking on the chat that at bat, I mean, he
Speaker 2: gets called out, you know, looking on a pitch that
Speaker 2: was challenged for the strikeout. And prior to that, Gabby
Speaker 2: had a challenge twice just to stay in the bat.
Speaker 2: The home played umpire missed by multiple inches twice, and
Speaker 2: that at bat to Gabby pitches way above the zone,
Speaker 2: like not even close. The guy had a bad day.
Speaker 2: There were numerous other situations, you know, But then you
Speaker 2: go like bases loaded, nobody out in the seventh Kepler
Speaker 2: pops out, Vargas, Pinch hits for Tower and he walks
Speaker 2: in a run. And then this was the next biggest
Speaker 2: The second biggest swing of the game was Waldy's five
Speaker 2: four to three double play. That was the second biggest
Speaker 2: WPA the game. That was worth negative twenty percent to
Speaker 2: the win percentage. They had actually gotten back to within
Speaker 2: striking distance twenty seven point four percent. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: it's a six three ball game. One out, bases loaded,
Speaker 2: seventh inning, you know, you get something done there and
Speaker 2: now you're you're getting back close to fifty percent. Instead
Speaker 2: he hits into the double play, the win expectancy drops
Speaker 2: twenty percent and down to seven point one percent, and
Speaker 2: that essentially, you know, pop back up a little bit,
Speaker 2: like you said when Corbyn homered.
Speaker 3: The other thing is, you know.
Speaker 2: Nolan did not have a good game, you know, and
Speaker 2: it needs to be said. If you look at the
Speaker 2: average leverage index or the player leverage index, Nolan's index
Speaker 2: is the highest amongst the qualified batters on the team.
Speaker 2: In other words, he's actually had the most high leverage
Speaker 2: key situations and he's got a negative DPA WPA of
Speaker 2: minus one, maybe even a little higher than that after
Speaker 2: today's game, So you know, I mean, Dolan's come through
Speaker 2: with some big hits, but at the same time, the
Speaker 2: full season one hundred and twenty games numbers, when you
Speaker 2: add them all up, he's actually fairly negative. I mean,
Speaker 2: he's got the largest negative WPA amongst the starteus that
Speaker 2: have qualified that are qualified for the batting title.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think overall, like Nolan is still
Speaker 1: it's hard to be upset with what he's given the
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks this season. He's probably going to hit twenty home runs,
Speaker 1: but it is a good point that the context and
Speaker 1: the timing of those hits does matter, and there have
Speaker 1: been some big ones there, but there have also been
Speaker 1: a lot of situations like what we saw in this game,
Speaker 1: where he's just not able to come through in one
Speaker 1: of those key moments. Unfortunately, Jack, the San Diego Padres
Speaker 1: just continue to win. They beat the Milwaukee Brewers in
Speaker 1: eleven innings today, found a way to score two runs
Speaker 1: in the bottom half of the eleventh inning, to walk
Speaker 1: it off. So this is where the standings sit right now.
Speaker 1: The Padres now have sole possession of the second wild
Speaker 1: card spot there at sixty five and fifty seven. The
Speaker 1: Phillies lost again. They're not exactly cruising right now. They
Speaker 1: lost seven to one to Saint Louis today, So the
Speaker 1: Phillies and Diamondbacks are now tied for that third wildcard
Speaker 1: spot at sixty four and fifty eight. Dbacs technically have
Speaker 1: the tiebreaker there. I guess that's something we should keep
Speaker 1: an eye on. They took two out of three from
Speaker 1: Philadelphia earlier in the season. There's another series between those
Speaker 1: two teams here in a couple of weeks. The Marlins
Speaker 1: have crept back up in this thing. They're only a
Speaker 1: game and a half out. The Cardinals are two and
Speaker 1: a half games. Really nice series from them against Philly,
Speaker 1: and then the Nationals, Reds, and Pirates all between five
Speaker 1: and six games out here as we record on Wednesday nights.
Speaker 1: So the Diamondbacks playoff odds have effectively been a coin
Speaker 1: flip for a while now. They've been a little over
Speaker 1: fifty percent. Now they're a little under fifty percent depending
Speaker 1: on where you look. Fangrafts has them at forty two
Speaker 1: point eight right now. But unfortunately, we've reached the point,
Speaker 1: Jack where I think the projection systems are going to
Speaker 1: favor the Padres and the Phillies over this Diamondbacks team.
Speaker 1: They're now inarguably the worst position out of those three teams.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's because they have an offense that just
Speaker 2: does not project on paper to be able to get
Speaker 2: the job done at this point. Even though Katel and
Speaker 2: Corbyn are clearly starting to turn it around, there's just
Speaker 2: not enough support there, yeah, you know, and it's just
Speaker 2: showing up in game after game, like, Okay, we have
Speaker 2: a nice little stretch there where the bottom of the
Speaker 2: line was doing really well and Corbyn and Catel weren't hitting.
Speaker 2: Now those guys are starting to turn it on and
Speaker 2: the bottom of the order is starting to look like
Speaker 2: the role players that they are. And you know, unfortunately
Speaker 2: Lars Newbar has not come in and had any positive
Speaker 2: impact yet. I don't know if from when he will,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, he really has struggled a lot
Speaker 2: since coming back from He did have a good June,
Speaker 2: but other than that, he's struggled for you know, better
Speaker 2: part of two years now, and we know well that
Speaker 2: he went through a really tough time with a surgery.
Speaker 2: But you know, that guy's got to start doing something.
Speaker 2: He's gonna start contributing otherwise it's really going to be
Speaker 2: a very tough look for my kasm.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no getting around that. The Diamondbacks only made
Speaker 1: one move at the trade deadline and it was to
Speaker 1: go get Lar's new bar. So still a lot of
Speaker 1: time left. He's only played. You know, we're still about
Speaker 1: a week or so of games at this point from him.
Speaker 1: Lots of time to turn things around. But I guess
Speaker 1: not a disaster of a Homestand for the Dbacks, when
Speaker 1: you look all the way back, you know, they split
Speaker 1: the series with San Diego, they take two out of
Speaker 1: three from LA and then they come right back and
Speaker 1: lose two out of three to Colorado. I guess if
Speaker 1: those outcomes had been swapped, like maybe everyone's just like, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna lose two out of three to the
Speaker 1: Dodgers and winning two out of three to the Rockies
Speaker 1: is totally fine, and maybe there's not so much negativity
Speaker 1: right now. But losing to this Rockies team at home,
Speaker 1: especially while the San Diego Padres go out and sweep
Speaker 1: the Brewers, who came into that series with the best
Speaker 1: record in baseball. The optics are just not great right now. Well,
Speaker 1: this is a mail bag episode and we are excited
Speaker 1: to dive into all of your mail bag questions. So
Speaker 1: with that said, don't go anywhere. We'll be back right
Speaker 1: after this here on Snake's territory.
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to Snake's Territory. Thank you all for being here.
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Speaker 1: five star review. With that, we're gonna go ahead and
Speaker 1: jump on into the mailbag, one of our favorite things
Speaker 1: to do here on Snake's Territory. Our first question comes
Speaker 1: from y e roc three one zero three over on Reddit.
Speaker 1: They say, how would you rate Tory's performance so far
Speaker 1: this season? If we miss the playoffs by a game
Speaker 1: or two. Has he done enough with this group to
Speaker 1: justify renewing his contract? Jack, what do you think?
Speaker 2: I think very much that he must make the playoffs
Speaker 2: in order to be brought back, and maybe even just
Speaker 2: winning a while, you know, getting to the wildcard and
Speaker 2: losing two games out of three in the wild card
Speaker 2: or something that might precipitate him not being brought back
Speaker 2: as well. I think they need to make the playoffs
Speaker 2: and maybe even need to win their first round for
Speaker 2: him to be able to continue as the manager of
Speaker 2: the Arizona Diamondbacks. As far as assessing the job he's
Speaker 2: doing this year, it's so hard. I mean, look, I
Speaker 2: get a little tired of all the Tory arguments and
Speaker 2: Tory debates because most of it's just simply coming from frustration,
Speaker 2: you know, and the off site. Well, they're not making
Speaker 2: the playoffs and you haven't made playoffs in ten years,
Speaker 2: and you know, look, you work with what you have,
Speaker 2: and every time you point out that a lot of
Speaker 2: times he hasn't had the best rosters and oftentimes had
Speaker 2: lousy bullpens, it's like, oh, you're a Tori apologist, and
Speaker 2: you know it's like I'm not for ready, it's so tired.
Speaker 3: But what I want I want, I want to look
Speaker 3: at this subjectively real quick.
Speaker 2: I often like to look at the fangrafs, Pythogoreean and
Speaker 2: base runs standings versus actual And now that doesn't mean
Speaker 2: if there's a big difference there, it's necessarily the manager
Speaker 2: that's all responsible for that. But that's where maybe you
Speaker 2: can tease out, like some of that difference is going
Speaker 2: to be perhaps due to what's.
Speaker 3: Going on from the dugout.
Speaker 2: So coming into today, the Diamondbacks were sixty four and
Speaker 2: fifty seven, and their Python Gaorean one loss, which is
Speaker 2: based on runs scored and runs allowed, was sixty two
Speaker 2: and fifty nine, So there were two games better than
Speaker 2: there in their actual then versus their pythagoreeon. The other
Speaker 2: number to look at is the base runs, which is
Speaker 2: base runs is what you do as far as without sequencing,
Speaker 2: So it's all of the events. It's all of the hits, walks, homers, strikeouts,
Speaker 2: everything that happens, but ignoring sequencing, ignoring clutch, ignoring runners
Speaker 2: in scoring position, it's how many runs you should have
Speaker 2: scored based on these events, and on that metric they're
Speaker 2: sixty and sixty one, So in other words, they've been
Speaker 2: four games better than their base runs. You can find
Speaker 2: all this that fangrafs under their standings tab. So what
Speaker 2: does that mean? Basically, the Diamondbacks actual one loss record
Speaker 2: has outperformed they're expected one loss based on runs scored
Speaker 2: and runs allowed, and it's all. They've also exceeded their
Speaker 2: one loss based on expected runs. So most of that
Speaker 2: is luck or sequencing or just you know, the way
Speaker 2: the ball's bouncing. But if there's any room in there
Speaker 2: to try to tease out, some of that may be
Speaker 2: due to the manager and how he's managed things and
Speaker 2: how him and his coaching staff have managed the players.
Speaker 3: So you can say that the team is.
Speaker 2: Slightly overperforming what they should have gotten wins wise. Now
Speaker 2: it's a double edged sword because I'm talking about twenty
Speaker 2: twenty six. If you go back to previous years, Tory
Speaker 2: would more frequently be on the negative side of this ledger.
Speaker 1: That's all really good stuff. I don't have a whole
Speaker 1: lot to add other than to just say I think
Speaker 1: it's funny that I want to say. It was two
Speaker 1: days ago there was Twitter discourse about whether Tory could
Speaker 1: win Manager of the Year. You know, like, I think
Speaker 1: there is a valid case that some people are making
Speaker 1: and now we're like, yeah, you know, I'm sure that's
Speaker 1: how people feel right now. After losing these last two
Speaker 1: games to the Rocky is like, yeah, it's time to
Speaker 1: move on from this guy, right, So it feels like
Speaker 1: the narrative here changes every couple of days. I agree
Speaker 1: with you that, Hey, yeah, what were you going to say?
Speaker 2: Who's the narrative? I mean, forget Twitter, right, it's all nonsense.
Speaker 1: I live on I care about.
Speaker 2: Every time they lose two games. It's the same fifty
Speaker 2: people that's retweeting over and over and over and over
Speaker 2: and over and over and over about fire.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fair. I don't think it.
Speaker 2: Just brings nothing to the discourse. I mean, I'm not
Speaker 2: saying that there isn't a good evaluation exercise that needs
Speaker 2: to be done here in evaluating Tory Leavello. And that's
Speaker 2: exactly what the front office is doing and what ownership
Speaker 2: is doing. And they're the ones that make the decisions,
Speaker 2: you know. And all I've ever tried to do is
Speaker 2: like bring more light to situations that people may not
Speaker 2: often understand or not have not even understand, just not
Speaker 2: have all the information. Yeah, you know, why didn't he
Speaker 2: bring in his picture? Well, my picture has got an
Speaker 2: ice pack on his arm and he.
Speaker 3: Can't pitch today. You know, things like that.
Speaker 2: It's just that that stuff happens all the time, where
Speaker 2: people go off on things that they think they know
Speaker 2: and understand, and then when you try to give him
Speaker 2: the information and fill in the blanks that they don't have,
Speaker 2: they go off on you about being a Tory apologist.
Speaker 2: It's like, whatever, it's a boring conversation.
Speaker 1: That's so fun, so much fun. Yeah, I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: in agreement that I think the Dbacks definitely have to
Speaker 1: make the playoffs for Toy to keep his job. Is
Speaker 1: that fair? I don't know for sure. I don't think
Speaker 1: this roster is awesome on paper, the fact that Dbacks
Speaker 1: are in this position, as you outlined, like, I think
Speaker 1: there's a pretty strong case we made the Toy's done
Speaker 1: pretty good with what he's had. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: he's been here for a while and this is just
Speaker 1: kind of the way the game is played. Like when
Speaker 1: your team doesn't make the playoffs for a few years,
Speaker 1: justified or not, someone's gonna lose their job, and for
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks, it probably would be Tory Leavello if they're
Speaker 1: not able to get in. So a fun conversation that
Speaker 1: we'll just leave right there for right now. Our next
Speaker 1: next question comes from Colton Walker, who said, if you
Speaker 1: had to say your playoff rotation for the wild Card
Speaker 1: Series right now, who would it be? This is fascinating, Jack,
Speaker 1: What do you think?
Speaker 2: It's pretty easy for me as of right now this moment.
Speaker 2: I mean it would be e Rod and fought one
Speaker 2: or two, just depending on how they lined up and
Speaker 2: whose turn it was. You know, they're going to be
Speaker 2: fighting all the way down to the last weekend of
Speaker 2: the season to try to make the playoffs, so it
Speaker 2: really just depends who's available. And Michael Soroka, I mean,
Speaker 2: those are the three guys that I would use. I
Speaker 2: would line those three guys up the best I could.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm I'm right there with you. It's those three.
Speaker 1: I guess if you got to an NLCS somehow or
Speaker 1: or the World Series, you needed a four starting pitcher.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think as you you'd pick Mitch brad
Speaker 1: over Merrill Kelly. If you're like going ulter recency bias,
Speaker 1: I imagine the Diamondbacks would would lean more toward Meryl
Speaker 1: Kelly given his history in the postseason, but maybe Corbin
Speaker 1: Earns is in the picture at that point. The dbacs
Speaker 1: could have some other options there as well. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the top three is pretty clear. E Rod Soroka fought
Speaker 1: in in some order. I think is pretty much the
Speaker 1: clear the clear move there. Our next question comes from
Speaker 1: simply underscore. Leo Over on Reddit says, when Lawler comes back,
Speaker 1: who do we DFA? Does Max Kepler go by at
Speaker 1: that point? Yeah, I think that this is an interesting
Speaker 1: decision the d Backs are going to have to make
Speaker 1: really soon, maybe like tomorrow to Jordan Lawler hit another
Speaker 1: home run for Amarillo today on Wednesday, back to back
Speaker 1: days with a home run for Lawler there, so he
Speaker 1: very well could join the Diamondbacks this weekend. You what
Speaker 1: do you think, Jack Well?
Speaker 2: I mean, if they option a guy, they'll option Tyler
Speaker 2: Locklear because he's hardly playing, and so the guy that
Speaker 2: they'll send out is likely to be the guy that
Speaker 2: they hardly use. If the DFA or player, it would
Speaker 2: be Kepler. We've been saying for a week now, the
Speaker 2: guy's better start producing. He actually did start producing. A
Speaker 2: bit today. I think, you know, he maybe is turning
Speaker 2: it around, but we still need to see some pop
Speaker 2: out of him. But if they're going to DFA anybody,
Speaker 2: I think they'll DFA him before the DFA Horny Porosa.
Speaker 3: It's my opinion.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I mean, Kepler is on the roster
Speaker 1: to do one thing right. It's to hit right handed pitching.
Speaker 1: And he did have a decent game today, two for
Speaker 1: four with a walk, his first good game in quite
Speaker 1: a while. It feels like, so I think you want
Speaker 1: to see him get on a run. Tyler Locklear did
Speaker 1: have a pinch hit single in what it felt like
Speaker 1: a meaningful spot. He has an eight forty six ops,
Speaker 1: so it would be kind of a bummer for him
Speaker 1: to get sent down. But based on his usage, as
Speaker 1: you said, like that's kind of a leading indicator there,
Speaker 1: it seems like it seems like they would they would
Speaker 1: be more likely to option lockleyer at this juncture than
Speaker 1: to dfa Max Kepp, especially after Kepler just reached base
Speaker 1: three times. Like that wouldn't the timing there wouldn't feel
Speaker 1: right to pull the trigger in that regard.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, we're just I don't even know what's
Speaker 2: right at this point. I mean, they're all role players.
Speaker 2: It's not like removing any one of them from the
Speaker 2: roster is going to be this massive change.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: The main thing is is what's going to get Jordan
Speaker 2: Laller the most playing time? And how well is he
Speaker 2: what is he going to do with it? Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: really the main thing that matters. We're just trying to
Speaker 2: handicap what the team is going to do. I'm not
Speaker 2: invested one way or the other there.
Speaker 1: Our next question comes from officer doot Over on Reddit.
Speaker 1: Is there a world in which Lattel joins the rotation
Speaker 1: and replaces Mitch Bratt. I feel like we will see
Speaker 1: Lttel do a lot better here than Washington because our
Speaker 1: defense is very good, whereas Washington has some of the
Speaker 1: worst defensive stats in the league. It's a fair point
Speaker 1: point Diamondbacks definitely an upgrade in that regard. I don't
Speaker 1: know Jack, as long as Mitch Brod is pitching like
Speaker 1: he has lost a couple of times out, it's to
Speaker 1: Littel might have to sort of wait his turn here.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean my guess is that at some point Lettel
Speaker 2: we'll get some spot starts. And get an opportunity to
Speaker 2: see what he can do. You know, if Bratt falters
Speaker 2: two or three starts in a row, or even Meryl,
Speaker 2: if he keeps doing what he's doing, if he continues
Speaker 2: to lose velocity, I mean, you know, God forbid, I
Speaker 2: hope he doesn't end up on the I L again,
Speaker 2: because if he does, there's probably not going to be
Speaker 2: enough time to get him ramp back up to help
Speaker 2: in the postseason. So you know, we'll see what happens there.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I'm just being a little bit alarmist. That
Speaker 2: mile and a half off on the four seam fastball
Speaker 2: for Meryll, two miles off on the cutter, even a mile,
Speaker 2: you know, losing a tick one point three I think
Speaker 2: on the change.
Speaker 3: Up, that's a red flag, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, nobody's going to admit it openly initially, but
Speaker 2: you look at the start before he had cramping issues.
Speaker 2: So you know, Latel's probably going to get a chance
Speaker 2: here at some point. We just don't know who he's
Speaker 2: going to get a chance to replace.
Speaker 1: I'm just picturing a scenario where the d Backs they've
Speaker 1: got to throw all their best pitchers, you know, in
Speaker 1: order to just get into the playoffs and then you
Speaker 1: wind up with a game one wild Card series and
Speaker 1: Zach Lttel is on the mound. It would be very
Speaker 1: funny if that's how things turned out. But hey, you
Speaker 1: pitched great the other day in long relief and you're
Speaker 1: coming off two pretty good seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays,
Speaker 1: so you never know what Lttel might be capable of. Well,
Speaker 1: one more question here before we get to a break.
Speaker 1: It's from our good pal Jeff Irving, who says this
Speaker 1: team struggles versus right handed pitching maybe the biggest achilles
Speaker 1: heel of the roster. In my opinion. The bats we
Speaker 1: have coming back are right handed. Updated thoughts on any
Speaker 1: of the lefty bats and the miners coming up and
Speaker 1: making an impact later in the season. We were talking
Speaker 1: about this last night. Jack Manny Pania in Triple A.
Speaker 1: His numbers don't really jump out at you at this point.
Speaker 1: Be a little surprising to see him get a call
Speaker 1: up in the final month or so of the season.
Speaker 1: Not impossible if he were to rattle off a couple
Speaker 1: of really good weeks, but his ops right now in
Speaker 1: Triple A is seven to twenty four, So I think
Speaker 1: you'd be also forty nine strikeouts to nine walks, a
Speaker 1: bit of a rough ratio there. Gavin Connacello has has
Speaker 1: put up some pretty good numbers since being promoted to
Speaker 1: Triple A. Twenty three year old third baseman who does
Speaker 1: bat left handed. In nineteen games in Triple A, he's
Speaker 1: hitting three twenty three with a nine to sixty six
Speaker 1: ops eighteen strikeouts to seven walks. Out of the few
Speaker 1: left handed hitters at that level, he might have the
Speaker 1: best shot of anyone to get a chance at some
Speaker 1: point here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, he only had a ninety
Speaker 2: seven WRC plus and three hundred and eleven played appearances
Speaker 2: in Double A, and now he's at seventy four PLA
Speaker 2: light appearances, he's got a one to twenty eight WRC plus,
Speaker 2: so for the year.
Speaker 3: He's at one oh three.
Speaker 2: He's on a nice run in Reno, you know, And
Speaker 2: it's a little odd to see him, I guess, you know,
Speaker 2: it depends on the pitching that you're facing and all
Speaker 2: of that. You know, he goes up a level but
Speaker 2: hits better even relative to the league and park adjusted
Speaker 2: and all of that. I didn't get a chance to
Speaker 2: look up his Well, maybe it's sitting there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, his x wOBA in Triple A is three forty one. Okay,
Speaker 3: pretty good compare that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that that even even for you know,
Speaker 2: three forty one is a pretty good ex wOBA and
Speaker 2: his ex wOBA for the season. Yes, there is still
Speaker 2: three forty one because they only have Triple A numbers,
Speaker 2: so that's a good number. It's a small sample size, right,
Speaker 2: so you know, I don't know if the team is
Speaker 2: going to buy in on that, but maybe he's a
Speaker 2: September crawl up, and you know, maybe they bring him
Speaker 2: up a day or two before September one if they
Speaker 2: really feel like they need another left handed bat. But
Speaker 2: I don't think they're just gonna jump straight to a
Speaker 2: twenty three year old with less than one hundred played
Speaker 2: appearances in Triple A. I just don't think they'll do that.
Speaker 2: But it'd be interesting if they did, be kind of fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it seems like if God forbid an
Speaker 1: injury happened to one of the starting infielders or something,
Speaker 1: that's where maybe something like that, maybe the d Backs
Speaker 1: just kind of feel forced to pull the trigger on
Speaker 1: something like that. I will mention that Peven Smith and
Speaker 1: Adrian del Castillo are also both in triple A. I
Speaker 1: don't know if those are the names that people are
Speaker 1: exactly thinking of here, and I think both guys would
Speaker 1: have to get pretty hot in order to get another shot,
Speaker 1: but certainly not impossible that that that could happen. Well,
Speaker 1: we have a couple more mail bag questions. They are
Speaker 1: both very fun, so we hope, we hope you stick around.
Speaker 1: But for right now, we're going to go ahead and
Speaker 1: talk about a big game the d Backs are playing
Speaker 1: this weekend in Atlanta. In this on deck presented by
Speaker 1: Fox One's segment, we're talking about Saturday's game, which is
Speaker 1: on Fox You of course could find it with Fox
Speaker 1: one Diamondbacks taking on the Braves on National TV this Saturday.
Speaker 1: Jack that game, I'm trying to remember who is on
Speaker 1: the bump for the Diamondbacks in that one. I want
Speaker 1: to say, it's Sieduardo Rodriguez.
Speaker 3: Now you got me, I gotta look it up.
Speaker 1: You know, I have a graphic that has it right
Speaker 1: here there.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 1: It's Erod against Grant Holmes as the pitching matchup in
Speaker 1: that Saturday game. Grant Holmes, who were looking at his
Speaker 1: underlying stats, his FIP is pretty close to five on
Speaker 1: the season, but his surface level numbers are pretty good.
Speaker 1: He's a right handed pitcher, and of course that is
Speaker 1: scary in and of itself. He has a three four
Speaker 1: seven ERA on the season in one hundred and fourteen innings.
Speaker 1: E Rod Jack, you have to feel pretty good about
Speaker 1: him anytime he's on the mound at this point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, talk about the surprise of the year. Just having
Speaker 2: a daughter. Rodriguez be our security blanket. But it's just
Speaker 2: just no denying how well he's pitched and the pitchability there,
Speaker 2: and he's just squeezing every last inch out of his
Speaker 2: stuff by you know, being a crafty veteran. He's mixing
Speaker 2: his pitches, locating there, you know every once in a while.
Speaker 2: I mean, out of his last six starts as two
Speaker 2: clunkers in there and four really good ones. You know,
Speaker 2: he's not reeling off ten straight without a bump in
Speaker 2: the road.
Speaker 3: But he was great his last time out, and of.
Speaker 2: Course he threw that one hundred and fifteen pitch seven
Speaker 2: inning effort to save the bullpen. It's nice that he's
Speaker 2: getting an extra there's a day off in between, and
Speaker 2: now he's getting the extra day day's rest. I think
Speaker 2: that'll help him, especially because.
Speaker 3: It can be a little steamy down there in Hotlanta.
Speaker 1: That is very true, glam Glad. I am not spending
Speaker 1: my summer out there. In the Colorado series, one thing
Speaker 1: I will make offensively for the d Backs Corbyn. Carroll
Speaker 1: was very good in that series overall. He went four
Speaker 1: four eleven. He hit his one hundredth career home run.
Speaker 1: As we mentioned, he also had two triples, just the
Speaker 1: one triple one triple one double in addition to the
Speaker 1: two home runs. So a really good series for Corbyn overall.
Speaker 1: A lot of that happening against right handed pitching. I
Speaker 1: know the home run today was against the lefty, but
Speaker 1: he's a really big part of this offense against Ryde's
Speaker 1: and with someone like Grant Holmes on the mound on Saturday,
Speaker 1: you're you're hoping to see more of this from Corbyn
Speaker 1: as he kind of starts to turn things around here
Speaker 1: Jack and maybe look a little more like himself.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, as you know we've said, I mean, the d
Speaker 2: Backs are only going to go as far as the
Speaker 2: stars can take them. They have to you know, carry
Speaker 2: the load, and you know, both him and Katel have
Speaker 2: started to turn it around here, so you know, hopefully
Speaker 2: that carries over and they just get a little bit
Speaker 2: more support. Tough Braves have a great pitching staff. You know,
Speaker 2: they have excellent bullpen. I mean basically the best bullpen
Speaker 2: in majors. So you're gonna have to get to their
Speaker 2: starters early because it's a lot of six inning games
Speaker 2: in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: Well, MLB on Fox is streaming on Fox one. The
Speaker 1: Race to October starts now, and we have your front
Speaker 1: row seat to the wildest walkoffs, lights out pitching, and
Speaker 1: clutch plays all season long. Follow every can't miss matchup
Speaker 1: as teams battle for a spot in the postseason. Then
Speaker 1: stream the twenty twenty six World Series live on Fox
Speaker 1: one at home or on the go live or on demand,
Speaker 1: never miss a moment. Stream now, Well, Jack, we have
Speaker 1: two more mail back questions to go, and these ones
Speaker 1: are both very fun. This one comes from Rebel King
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, who says, fun question time for both
Speaker 1: Jesse and Jack. If you could somehow add one former
Speaker 1: diamondback in their prime to the team right now, whether
Speaker 1: it's at a playoff run, who would it be and why?
Speaker 1: I went back and forth and back and forth on this,
Speaker 1: But Jack, I'm gonna give you the first shot at
Speaker 1: this one. Who who do you got?
Speaker 3: I am?
Speaker 2: You know we by the way, we did not share
Speaker 2: our answers with each other, but I know we're thinking
Speaker 2: exactly the same thing. Do you want a left handed
Speaker 2: hitter or do you want a first basement?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: So you're giving me the option. Am I supposed to pick?
Speaker 2: Well? I mean in my mind, like you know, I'm
Speaker 2: it's like, what do I need more? Do I need
Speaker 2: a left handed bat or do I need a first basement? Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's one of those two. Now, if it's a left
Speaker 2: handed bat, we know who it is. And if it's
Speaker 2: a first basement, we know who it is. Yeahsalas, Louis
Speaker 2: Gonzales or.
Speaker 3: Paul Goldschmidt.
Speaker 2: And if I got to pick one, I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: Louis Gonzalez because his peak season two thousand and one
Speaker 2: was the most impact.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is very compelling. I was I was thinking
Speaker 1: a two thousand and one Gonzo as well. He had
Speaker 1: an eleven fifty one ops against right handed pitching that year,
Speaker 1: forty two home runs just against righty's one hundred RBI.
Speaker 1: That'll certainly play and would be very nice in the
Speaker 1: middle of this Diamondbacks lineup. I also was kind of
Speaker 1: tripped up on the positional thing, like, oh, but a
Speaker 1: first baseman would like really fit the roster better, So
Speaker 1: maybe you just take like twenty fifteen Paul Goldschmidt, he
Speaker 1: had a one to fifty six WRC plus against righty's
Speaker 1: that year, Like, that'll work as well. But the other
Speaker 1: name that I was fumbling around and trying to figure
Speaker 1: this out what was causing me some pause was I
Speaker 1: was also like, maybe you just want Randy Johnson because
Speaker 1: he's Randy Johnson, And like, who cares how many runs
Speaker 1: you score if you can have Randy Johnson pitching for you, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But I just think of the twenty fourteen they
Speaker 2: had Randy Johnson pitching at a say young level, and
Speaker 2: he only went sixteen and fourteen because the team couldn't hit,
Speaker 2: So you still need runs.
Speaker 1: That's true. I like to think that this Diamondbacks offense
Speaker 1: is a little more confident than the two thousand and
Speaker 1: four offense that was a little rough. But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a fair point. It's a fair point. Gonzo was my
Speaker 1: number one option with Goldie and Randy Johnson, We're both
Speaker 1: kind of in the mix. For me, this question does
Speaker 1: have a part two. The bonus question here is if
Speaker 1: you could magically add anyone in the league currently to
Speaker 1: the team besides Shoho Tani, that would just be cheating
Speaker 1: while taking into consideration current health. Who would you add? Jack?
Speaker 1: I'm not sure there's a right answer to this, but
Speaker 1: I kind of think there's a right answer to this.
Speaker 1: Did you also say Houston Astro's designated hitter, your Don Alvarez?
Speaker 3: Yes, of course, of course, Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think a triple crown winner my kind of also
Speaker 2: with this offense.
Speaker 1: I just went to fangrafts and and did the split
Speaker 1: leader board thing and just did verse right handed pitching
Speaker 1: and then just sorted by ops or whatever, and yord
Speaker 1: On Alvarez is like way better than anyone else, so
Speaker 1: it felt felt pretty pretty easy. He has a two
Speaker 1: to ten WRC plus against righty's this season and eleven
Speaker 1: forty ops. So yeah, jord On Alvarez would be a
Speaker 1: pretty big addition in that regard. Do you want to
Speaker 1: know who is twelfth on that list?
Speaker 5: Jack?
Speaker 1: WRC plus against righty's this season, so familiar, it's a
Speaker 1: familiar name. Blaize Alexander of the bal Baltimore Orioles is twelve.
Speaker 3: What's your PA criteria?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not much, he was. I think it's one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty, about one hundred and fifty played appearances.
Speaker 1: So plays Alexander not a qualified hitter this season. He's
Speaker 1: missed some time, I think so, Yeah, I think is
Speaker 1: back now. He has weird reverse splits this season where
Speaker 1: he's actually been much better against righty's and lefties. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it looks like he is back. Looks like he's four
Speaker 1: for six in his last two games entering today. So
Speaker 1: Blaze is still doing it out there in Baltimore. And
Speaker 1: uh yeah, d Backs can kind of use him. That's
Speaker 1: a that's a bit of a bummer. Anyway, our last question,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and move on. Uh here's another fun one.
Speaker 1: If you could design one pitcher in a lab with
Speaker 1: five pitches from across the d Backs pitching staff, which
Speaker 1: five pitches would you use?
Speaker 2: I e.
Speaker 1: Merrill, Kelly's change up, Michael Sirokas slurve that sort of idea. Jack,
Speaker 1: I'll give you the the first the first shot at
Speaker 1: this one as well.
Speaker 2: All right, So I went with Ryan Nelson's four seen fastball,
Speaker 2: wa Mario's sinker, Herado Corrio's cutter. Oh, Brandon Garcia is
Speaker 2: sweet slide sweeper, and Andrew Hoffman's change up, And I
Speaker 2: did this kind of yeah.
Speaker 1: I didn't expected Andrew Hoffman mention. Okay, I know.
Speaker 2: Nothing else worked for him, and his fastball wasn't good enough,
Speaker 2: but his change up stuff plus is one hundred and fifteen.
Speaker 2: Brandon Garcia is sweeper, stuff plus is one forty three,
Speaker 2: Mario's sinker's one eighteen, and Ryan Nelson's fastball's won ten.
Speaker 2: So you know you got you got the high rise
Speaker 2: you know, high ivv Ryan Nelson fastball, and you got
Speaker 2: the Hoffman change up, and you can take care of
Speaker 2: lefties with those two right, you know, top shelf up
Speaker 2: and in with the four seemer boom, knock him out
Speaker 2: down and a way get the swing and miss from
Speaker 2: the change up. Think Eric Kangey back in the day,
Speaker 2: if you're that old, you know. And then against Righty's
Speaker 2: you got the sinker slider combination of Mario's sinker and
Speaker 2: Garcia's slider and growing a little cutter action there and
Speaker 2: right He's don't have a chance either. So that was
Speaker 2: my my five. I did look also at run values,
Speaker 2: but I don't know if your yours is kind of
Speaker 2: using run value, So I'll circle back to that once
Speaker 2: you're done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have I have kind of a mix of
Speaker 1: some run value stuff, some stuff plus numbers as well.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Part of me was like, well, I'll take Justin Martinez
Speaker 1: his four seemer and Justin Martin sinker and Justin Martin.
Speaker 2: Wait, he's hasn't played yet this year.
Speaker 1: Did you see how Hardy was throwing in Reno just yesterday? Though, Jack,
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm allowed to do that. All right,
Speaker 1: I'll leave I'll leave jmar out Fron.
Speaker 3: You could have j You could have J mart If I.
Speaker 1: If I could have J mart then I don't know.
Speaker 1: His four seamer doesn't like it's all the velo is insane, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's one hundred and two miles an hour.
Speaker 1: Doesn't have crazy movement on that pitch necessarily, So even
Speaker 1: with J mart I maybe I would be torn between
Speaker 1: his for seamer and Juan Mario's for seamer. I think
Speaker 1: kuand Mario, certainly of the active players, has far and
Speaker 1: away the best four seam fastball on the roster. He's
Speaker 1: at a one oh nine stuff plus there. Honestly, not
Speaker 1: quite as high as I would have thought, but we've
Speaker 1: just seen like nobody can square up that pitch time
Speaker 1: and time again. It's been really, really effective for him,
Speaker 1: lots of ride, averaging around ninety nine miles per hour.
Speaker 1: So for leaving j Mart out, I'll go Juan Rio's
Speaker 1: four seamer. I also had Brandon Garcia's sweeper, or if
Speaker 1: we want to call it a slider. I guess if
Speaker 1: I'm calling that pitch a sweeper and I'm picking a
Speaker 1: true slider. Separately, I had Kevin Ginkle slider, which still
Speaker 1: grades out pretty dang well and has a whiff rate
Speaker 1: north of forty percent. I know he's left some in
Speaker 1: some bad spots at times this year, but the results
Speaker 1: against that pitch have still been very poor. It remains
Speaker 1: one of the best sliders that you'll find in a bullpen.
Speaker 1: I think the run value there is plus seven for
Speaker 1: the season, so pretty impressive stuff there. Juan Mario I
Speaker 1: have his change up as well. I think he probably
Speaker 1: has the best change up of any active player. And
Speaker 1: then I went to Michael Soroka's slurve. We got to
Speaker 1: have a slurve right, So I did throw Michael Soroka
Speaker 1: slurve in there. One ninety four opponent batting average on
Speaker 1: that pitch two sixty five x wOBA. All the indicators
Speaker 1: we have show that that has been very, very effective
Speaker 1: this season. Dbax don't really have anyone with like an
Speaker 1: awesome curveball, so I threw Brandon Fought in there. I
Speaker 1: know the run value isn't that high for some reason.
Speaker 1: I think maybe because he's not like great at spotting
Speaker 1: it for strikes. But the movement profile and his curveball
Speaker 1: is pretty good and guys don't tend to do much
Speaker 1: with it and it can generate some swing and miss.
Speaker 1: So Fought's curveball is maybe where I would I would
Speaker 1: lean for for a curveball if I was picking one.
Speaker 2: Okay, cool, you know, I just want to it's kind
Speaker 2: of funny. I want to circle back on the run value.
Speaker 2: So I I did the highest run value per one
Speaker 2: hundred pitches, because if you just add them all up,
Speaker 2: starters you know with a decent number is going to
Speaker 2: have a higher Like you know e robs On on
Speaker 2: any of these lists, but his fastball and changeup have
Speaker 2: the highest total run value on those two pitches, right,
Speaker 2: but if we go per one hundred pitches, okay, Uh,
Speaker 2: the slider was a Prado Correo five point one nine
Speaker 2: that was the highest, highest per one hundred pitches run value.
Speaker 1: I mean he think he's pitched like like ten innings, right.
Speaker 3: I know, I know, I'm just to say sinker sink.
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously in results, you know, the run value
Speaker 2: per one hundred is all about results, right, Sinker Taylor
Speaker 2: Clark tailor Clark sinkers generally four point sixty four runs
Speaker 2: per one hundred. The change up Mitch Bratt his change
Speaker 2: up rates three point eight nine per one hundred. Splitter
Speaker 2: his career again, Correa's got that splitter at three point
Speaker 2: sixty four curve.
Speaker 3: This one's gonna blow everyone away.
Speaker 2: Philip Abner three point three five, Wow cutter, Jonathan Loasaca
Speaker 2: three point three to one. And here's another one that's
Speaker 2: going to surprise people and not end here. Four Seeing
Speaker 2: fastball run value per one hundred pitches, Brandon fought one
Speaker 2: point eight six.
Speaker 1: I did see Brandon fought very very high up on
Speaker 1: the fastball run value, which is which is impressive because
Speaker 1: that was kind of his His big issue over the
Speaker 1: course of the first two three years of his career
Speaker 1: was his four seamer was just kind of getting hammered.
Speaker 1: We've seen him use the sinker a little bit more
Speaker 1: and the fur seemer this year has been very, very
Speaker 1: effective for him. So yeah, it's a fun exercise. I
Speaker 1: think it was cool to see how like doing this
Speaker 1: exercise now is a lot more interesting than it would
Speaker 1: have been three four years ago, even last year. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's just there's more guys with compelling stuff in this
Speaker 1: organization right now than we've seen in a while, at
Speaker 1: least close to the big leagues, and in the big leagues,
Speaker 1: like I could have been convinced take Harardo Correo on
Speaker 1: several of these Like if I can't have Justin Martinez
Speaker 1: a splitter, I'm probably taking Harado Correo splitter. I know
Speaker 1: that that showed up on your your run value list there.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the Diamondbacks have better stuff and and this bullpen,
Speaker 1: even though it has not been great here in recent days,
Speaker 1: it's a big reason why they've made it to this point,
Speaker 1: why why they're still in this race, and why they've
Speaker 1: still got a shot in this thing. With about a
Speaker 1: month and a half to go.
Speaker 2: They pitched four scoreless today, so yeah, I'm too bad.
Speaker 2: And they only gave up one run yesterday, so I
Speaker 2: mean the last two days they gave it one run.
Speaker 3: Not too chevy.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, the run that was given up yesterday was the
Speaker 2: game winning run by Kevin Ginkle. There was one run
Speaker 2: in three innings and then no runs in for today,
Speaker 2: so you know, one in seven that's that's some pretty
Speaker 2: good work.
Speaker 3: That's maybe that extra rest.
Speaker 2: And you know, the Zach Lettel game was was a
Speaker 2: major factor and maybe helped getting them turned around. But
Speaker 2: I'm really happy about this question. It was a fun,
Speaker 2: fun question asked.
Speaker 3: It was great.
Speaker 2: I don't know if we gave all the right answers there,
Speaker 2: but look forward to seeing other people's thoughts on it
Speaker 2: in the comments.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was very fun. Thank you to all of
Speaker 1: you who submitted questions for this mailbag episode. Sorry we
Speaker 1: couldn't get to everyone. There were quite a few, but
Speaker 1: keep them coming. We always really really enjoyed doing this.
Speaker 1: Diamondback speaking of getting a nice rest in the bullpen,
Speaker 1: they'll get a little more of that here Over the
Speaker 1: next twenty four hours. Dbacks have an off Day in
Speaker 1: Atlanta tomorrow, and then they start that three game series
Speaker 1: against the Braves on Friday. They will be opposed by
Speaker 1: Chris Sale in the first game of that series, and
Speaker 1: then Brandon Fott will pitch in that game. We already
Speaker 1: talked about e Rod and Grant Holmes on Saturday, and
Speaker 1: then it's Michael Soroka against Bryce Elder in the finale
Speaker 1: of that series. Hey, this is the playoff rotation, Jack,
Speaker 1: This is you fought e Rod and and Soroka line
Speaker 1: it up here against a pretty good team in Atlanta Diamondbacks.
Speaker 1: It feels like do not tend to play the Atlanta
Speaker 1: Braves particularly well, but they could really use a bounce
Speaker 1: back series here this weekend.
Speaker 2: And this is a pretty good preview. Like, is this
Speaker 2: team if they got to the playoffs, would be able
Speaker 2: to compete?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. The pitching matchups could totally look like
Speaker 1: this in an actual playoff series.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, hopefully we'll get to see j mart
Speaker 2: and Jordan Lawler maybe this weekend, maybe Boston the latest,
Speaker 2: so it could be pretty exciting folks.
Speaker 1: There you go. And hey, Chris Sale is Chris Sale,
Speaker 1: but he's also a lefty, so you never know what
Speaker 1: you might get from this deepags offense on Friday Night.
Speaker 1: Thank you to all of you for being with us
Speaker 1: on this episode. We really appreciate your time. If you
Speaker 1: haven't already, you can find us on Twitter. I am
Speaker 1: at Jesse and Friedman. Jack is at sh Wizard fifty nine.
Speaker 1: Our show is at Snake's Territory, and of course you
Speaker 1: can find Jack's written work over at Arizona Diamondbacks on
Speaker 1: SI Jack. Any final thoughts here as we say goodbye.
Speaker 3: Another thing, I'm done.
Speaker 1: That last one. Just there's lots of run values and stuff,
Speaker 1: plus numbers and whatnot throw that we're all throwing out here.
Speaker 1: So appreciate all of you for keeping us busy, giving
Speaker 1: us lots of fun things to talk about it. We
Speaker 1: really appreciate it once again, and we'll be back with
Speaker 1: another episode here of Snake's Territory very very soon.
Speaker 3: S