Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Snake's Territory, part
Speaker 1: of the Foul Territory Network. Be sure to drop alike
Speaker 1: on this video, subscribe to our YouTube channel, maybe leave
Speaker 1: us a five star review wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1: I am Jesse Friedman alongside Jack Summers and Jack. It
Speaker 1: was all Arizona Diamondbacks tonight in their game against the
Speaker 1: San Francisco Giants. They win by a final score of
Speaker 1: eight to two. Brandon Fott was excellent in five and
Speaker 1: a third innings. Catel Marte Homard for his fourth consecutive game.
Speaker 1: There's nothing like a series against the Giants to get
Speaker 1: this team back on track.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 3: I mean now they've won eight in a row to
Speaker 3: start the season against the Giants. That's a franchise record
Speaker 3: to start the season. Who actually was set last night
Speaker 3: at seven, So they've extended that to eight against any
Speaker 3: opponent to start the season. So yeah, it would be
Speaker 3: great if we could play them all the time.
Speaker 1: The Diamondbacks are now thirteen and two. I believe we're
Speaker 1: up to against the Giants and Rockies combined. That leaves
Speaker 1: them thirty and forty against all other teams. But hey,
Speaker 1: It now adds up to an above five hundred record,
Speaker 1: as the Diamondbacks are now forty three and forty two
Speaker 1: after this eight to win over the Giants, Jack, I
Speaker 1: guess we'll start on the pitching side of things. Brandon
Speaker 1: Fought deserves a lot of credit for setting the tone
Speaker 1: for the Diamondbacks early on in this one. He was
Speaker 1: extremely efficient, of course, working on a limited pitch count
Speaker 1: in this game. Tory Lavello said before the game that
Speaker 1: he thought Fought could get to around five innings something
Speaker 1: like that. Five innings seemed optimistic from what we heard pregame,
Speaker 1: and Fought was able to go even beyond that and
Speaker 1: pitch into the sixth in this one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had a few questions about it.
Speaker 3: In the first inning, I mean, he gave up the
Speaker 3: base hit to a rise and then the three outs
Speaker 3: that he got were all on pitches in the middle
Speaker 3: of the zone, A couple of fastballs and a sweeper
Speaker 3: that were all like pretty much right in the center
Speaker 3: heart of the zone. But he got two pop ups
Speaker 3: in a flyout, so they must have had some late
Speaker 3: movement that.
Speaker 2: You know, we're fooling the Giants' hitters.
Speaker 3: And then from there you know, he only gave up
Speaker 3: two more hits and both of them were to arise,
Speaker 3: so you know, it was really efficient.
Speaker 2: He was throwing strikes, he was attacking the zone. Great outing.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, obviously a soft landing against the Giants,
Speaker 3: but you can't take.
Speaker 2: Anything away from Brandon Fought.
Speaker 3: You know, he went out there and did exactly what
Speaker 3: he had to do and even gave them more length
Speaker 3: and was expected. So a very successful return to the
Speaker 3: rotation for him, hopefully something he can build off of
Speaker 3: a little unfortunate that, you know, he gave up that
Speaker 3: home run to arise and had a walk off the mound.
Speaker 2: Bait with that.
Speaker 3: I don't think anybody was really very happy about that
Speaker 3: particular development. But as I said, you know, elsewhere, I
Speaker 3: don't know what they're dealing with in the bullpen and
Speaker 3: who's down and which guys have sore arms, and so
Speaker 3: if he's trying to squeeze a couple more outs out
Speaker 3: of him so that he can you know, bridge the
Speaker 3: gap in the bullpen, then that's what he was trying
Speaker 3: to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, seems like if this game had been closer at
Speaker 1: that point, Tory probably doesn't let Fott face Luisa Rise
Speaker 1: for a third time. Arise was two for two against
Speaker 1: Fought already in the game and entered the game ten
Speaker 1: for twenty one. I believe it was in his career
Speaker 1: against Brandon Fought. Luisa Rise is just utterly dominated Brandon
Speaker 1: Fought throughout his career and today was certainly no different.
Speaker 1: But yes, despite the sour note that this game ended
Speaker 1: on for Brandon Fought, it was an outstanding out and
Speaker 1: you can see the final line here five and a third,
Speaker 1: three hits, one run, one walk, two strikeouts. Again just
Speaker 1: sixty six pitches forty two of those strikes. He was
Speaker 1: super efficient in this game. Of course, unsurprising Jack that
Speaker 1: the Giants stacked their lineup with left handed hitters six
Speaker 1: of the nine guys in their starting lineup, where lefties
Speaker 1: teams always do this against Brandon Fought given the pretty
Speaker 1: significant platoon splits there, and the question for Fought often
Speaker 1: is what is he going to do against left handed hitters?
Speaker 1: What's going to be the plan of attack? And in
Speaker 1: this game, I thought he had two pitches working pretty
Speaker 1: well against lefties. Both the change up and the cutter
Speaker 1: stood out to me in this one. Here, I have
Speaker 1: a graphic of every change up that Brandon Fought threw
Speaker 1: in this game, you can see, much like Eduardo Rodriguez
Speaker 1: in yesterday's game, the command of the changeup was really excellent.
Speaker 1: You can see a lot of these pitches down below
Speaker 1: the zone or on the lower outside corner to a
Speaker 1: left handed hitter. That's pretty much exactly where you want
Speaker 1: that pitch. And then you can see here with the cutter,
Speaker 1: that's a pitch that you're you're generally trying to throw
Speaker 1: high and inside to left handed hitters, and you can
Speaker 1: see that here. Brandon fought consistently on the the up
Speaker 1: and in a sort of portion of the zone against
Speaker 1: the lefties with that cutter. So, uh, you know, it's
Speaker 1: just one game, but you could you could see the
Speaker 1: plan of attack for for fought in this one against lefties,
Speaker 1: and it worked really well for him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what we were calling for before the game,
Speaker 3: is you know, to see what he was going to
Speaker 3: do facing left handed hitters. We knew he'd see a
Speaker 3: lot of them. I think you had six in the
Speaker 3: lineup tonight. So great work there, Jesse pulling those up.
Speaker 3: Couldn't have illustrated any better exactly what he did to
Speaker 3: neutralize lefties tonight, with the exception of one of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Louis their eyes just sort of in a
Speaker 1: in a different category. He is sort of stands alone
Speaker 1: out of this Giant's offense. I mean, his batting average
Speaker 1: is now up to three thirty one an eight thirty
Speaker 1: six ops. I don't know, Jack, is this the time
Speaker 1: where we talk about Luisa Rise as a trade candidate
Speaker 1: for the Diamondbacks? You want to just sneak that in here.
Speaker 3: Well, we were kind of chatting, you know, like we're
Speaker 3: not the only ones to think of this.
Speaker 2: But you know, if you think.
Speaker 3: About where the Dbacks have a weakness, you know, their
Speaker 3: their first baseman.
Speaker 2: Or not getting the job done.
Speaker 3: They're basically last or second last, I think the last
Speaker 3: in the league and first base ops and you know, batting.
Speaker 2: Runs and however you want to measure it.
Speaker 3: And while a Rise may not be the slugger that
Speaker 3: everybody would like to have at first base, I'd rather
Speaker 3: have a slug light you know, three hundred batting average
Speaker 3: than a slug light one fifty batting average. So there's
Speaker 3: that to consider. He's on a one year deal, twelve
Speaker 3: million dollars, so.
Speaker 2: He wouldn't be all that expensive.
Speaker 3: You pick him up with you know, two plus in
Speaker 3: the season, you're only you're only paying about you know,
Speaker 3: four million, maybe five tops, if they did something quick quickly,
Speaker 3: and the fact that it's you know, two and a
Speaker 3: half month rental means the prospect costs might not be
Speaker 3: super high. Of course, you wouldn't want to trade with
Speaker 3: a division rival for anything that would anybody that would
Speaker 3: cost you big time on prospects, So it depends on
Speaker 3: what the Giants are looking for. I think there's some
Speaker 3: teams out there though, that would be pretty interested in
Speaker 3: bringing in a rise at the deadline this year. With
Speaker 3: the season he's having, he's healthy, his legs are good,
Speaker 3: he's been playing really good defense at second base. He's
Speaker 3: even stealing bases this year, so he's got his legs
Speaker 3: under him and it's showing. So his market's going to
Speaker 3: be fairly brisk, I would believe.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at his Baseball Reference page right now. He's
Speaker 1: at two point four Baseball Reference war entering today, and
Speaker 1: the guy's on pace for a five war season, which
Speaker 1: which could be his best season ever. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: never had a five war season by Baseball Reference numbers,
Speaker 1: So I think you're right. The market there is going
Speaker 1: to be robust, to say the very least on the
Speaker 1: offense side of things. The Diamondbacks were able to get
Speaker 1: going early in this game. Lordis Guriel Junior. He did
Speaker 1: the thing jack With two on and two out in
Speaker 1: the bottom of the first inning, Lordis got a two
Speaker 1: to oh fastball middle in and drove it out into
Speaker 1: left field, and it actually looked like it was going
Speaker 1: to be a one to one count. You can see
Speaker 1: the pitches here. Lordis took a curveball off the outer
Speaker 1: edge for ball one. The second pitch was a curveball
Speaker 1: low that was originally called a strike. And then Lordis
Speaker 1: pretty aggressive in that moment, challenged that call and flipped
Speaker 1: a one to one count into a two oh count.
Speaker 1: And you know, I don't know if that necessarily made
Speaker 1: the difference in the bat but when you're up two
Speaker 1: to oh, it allows you to be a different level
Speaker 1: of aggressive. And Lordis came out with one of his
Speaker 1: best swings of the season on the very next pitch.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a moonshot. That was thirty seven degree
Speaker 3: launch angle. I mean it was you know, he banged it,
Speaker 3: but it was it barely got out. It's just like
Speaker 3: two three rows deep I think at the most, but
Speaker 3: went travel three what eighty nine on thirty seven degree
Speaker 3: launch angle, So you know that was another way to
Speaker 3: describe a moonshot, right, he got it up there, But
Speaker 3: he's been hot, right, I mean, you know I tweeted
Speaker 3: out right after the homer. He was then at that
Speaker 3: point seven for twenty one with three doubles in a homer.
Speaker 3: He later came back and doubled one more time in
Speaker 3: the game. So you know, Lord of scuriel hot streak
Speaker 3: seems to be upon us and we've been waiting for
Speaker 3: it for a long time. And you know, more please
Speaker 3: because they really need it. But if you know you're
Speaker 3: five through nine in the order, if Lord of Scuriel
Speaker 3: is starting to bang the ball, then then you you
Speaker 3: got a much better chance to lengthen your lineup and
Speaker 3: start putting someone's on the board again.
Speaker 1: Does this mean your your trade idea with the Seattle
Speaker 1: Mariners is now off? Jerry Depoto lost his window and
Speaker 1: lordis is now staying in Arizona.
Speaker 2: Back off, Jerry, back off man.
Speaker 1: I don't know that the Mariners do have six starting
Speaker 1: pitchers currently, so who knows, maybe there's still something there,
Speaker 1: but yeah, lordis getting hot has I mean, that's something
Speaker 1: the Dbacks have needed for for a long time. And
Speaker 1: he has a long ways to go from From a
Speaker 1: numbers standpoint, his OPS for the season is still just
Speaker 1: right around six hundred, even after having a home run
Speaker 1: in that first inning and a double later in the game.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was a really nice swing and something
Speaker 1: that we need to see more of from Lordis who
Speaker 1: was his second home run of the season, his first
Speaker 1: home run since May seventeenth, So really not much in
Speaker 1: the way of penia power this season from Lords Guriel Junior.
Speaker 1: The Diamondbacks got several more runs up on the board
Speaker 1: a couple innings later. In the bottom of the third,
Speaker 1: with the bases loaded and two outs, or Hey, Barosa
Speaker 1: had a pretty nice at bat against Landen Group, drew
Speaker 1: a walk that forced in a run, extended the Diamondbacks
Speaker 1: lead to four nothing, and then could tell Marte Jack
Speaker 1: followed that up with a two run single and I
Speaker 1: don't want to say that put the game out of
Speaker 1: reach in the third, but it gave the Diamondbacks a
Speaker 1: really comfortable lead.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they would then go on to you know,
Speaker 2: add to it.
Speaker 3: But at that point you really felt like, Okay, they've
Speaker 3: got control of this game. And look, Lendon Roup walked
Speaker 3: six batters and he just you know, could not find
Speaker 3: the plate, and so you knew that they were going
Speaker 3: to score more runs.
Speaker 2: And then the Giants bullpen.
Speaker 3: I mean, if you're asking them to go out there
Speaker 3: and get you, you know, five plus six innings, whatever,
Speaker 3: you know you're gonna score some more runs against them.
Speaker 3: And they did, and they did it with some power,
Speaker 3: which was fun to see they did.
Speaker 1: There was some power. A few innings later, could tell
Speaker 1: Marte bases empty hits a solo home run. It was
Speaker 1: an absolute no doubter. I believe came on an two pitch,
Speaker 1: which is not something you see real often, but it
Speaker 1: was a middle, middle slider and count tell Marte did
Speaker 1: it once again. He homered for his fourth consecutive game.
Speaker 1: He is the sixth member of the Diamondbacks and franchise
Speaker 1: history to homer in four consecutive games. And it was
Speaker 1: no cheap shot jack four hundred and thirty one feet
Speaker 1: an absolute no doubter for Kutel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he just looked at that and gave a quick
Speaker 3: little bat flip he knew it was gone. Pretty impressive stuff.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, when he gets hot, we know
Speaker 3: what he can do. But homering him four straight games
Speaker 3: something he's never done before. Kind of an interesting list
Speaker 3: of players that have done it for the d Backs.
Speaker 3: Little walk down memory lane here. The most recent before
Speaker 3: Catel was a Duardo Escobar and he did that in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty one in April. Mark Trumbo did it in
Speaker 3: twenty fourteen. Mark Reynolds did it in two thousand and nine.
Speaker 3: Troy Gloss did it twice. He did it in two
Speaker 3: thousand and five in April and again in September. He
Speaker 3: hit thirty eight homers that year, his loan season with
Speaker 3: the Diamondbacks. And Reggie Sanders did it in April of
Speaker 3: twenty two thousand and one. So that's the list of
Speaker 3: players that have done it. So it's been done seven times,
Speaker 3: but by six players being Gloss did it twice.
Speaker 1: And of course this was not the only history that
Speaker 1: kateel Marte made in this game. Ktel also passed Paul
Speaker 1: Goldschmidt and is now second place on the Diamondbacks all
Speaker 1: time hitless trailing on Luis Gonzales could tell now at
Speaker 1: one thousand, one hundred and eighty four hits I believe
Speaker 1: is where he ended the day. Luis Gonzalez at one thousand,
Speaker 1: three hundred and thirty seven and Jack. That puts Kittell
Speaker 1: within shouting distance. I mean, I think there's a pretty
Speaker 1: realistic chance that a year from now, sometime in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty seven, could tell Marte will be the Diamondbacks all
Speaker 1: time hit leader.
Speaker 3: That sounds about right. I mean, he's not going anywhere.
Speaker 3: He's not going to be traded. Co tell Marte is
Speaker 3: going to be here for a long, much longer time.
Speaker 3: And you know, at this point you have to look
Speaker 3: at it and say, hey, you know, where is he
Speaker 3: on all the franchise lists? Well, here he's here. He
Speaker 3: comes on the hit list. He's only five behind Paul
Speaker 3: Goldschmith and franchise war for position players. Yeah, I think,
Speaker 3: you know, so five war behind Goldie. That's something that's
Speaker 3: very much within range. I mean, he could also pass
Speaker 3: Goldie that by the end of twenty twenty seven. You know, now,
Speaker 3: that may not make him the best franchise position player
Speaker 3: of all time. Goldie's peak is probably a bit higher
Speaker 3: and a little bit more consistent, but you know, Katella
Speaker 3: has a long way to go here before his Diamondbacks
Speaker 3: career is over, and he's going to be all over
Speaker 3: the top one, two, and three.
Speaker 2: Of the franchise leaderboard before it's all said and done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, now that Katel has the no trade
Speaker 1: in place, I mean he's he's going to be a
Speaker 1: member of the Diamondbacks for much longer. And this is
Speaker 1: already his tenth season in the organization. He's he's going
Speaker 1: to start to take over on a lot of these
Speaker 1: all time lists. Should be fun to watch in the
Speaker 1: coming years, for sure. But we have a whole lot
Speaker 1: more to get to. On this edition of Snake's Territory,
Speaker 1: We're going to talk a little more about our observations
Speaker 1: from this game. We'll revisit last night's game, what Eduardo
Speaker 1: Rodriguez did in that one, will talk Standing's, will talk Bullpen.
Speaker 1: We've got some other things to get to as well,
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 Snake's territory. Shout out to
Speaker 1: all of you joining us in the chat. We really
Speaker 1: appreciate all of you being here with us once again,
Speaker 1: really helps us out. If you would drop alike on
Speaker 1: this video. Also, while you're at it, subscribe to our
Speaker 1: channel hit the bell icon for notifications. Those are all
Speaker 1: great ways to support the show. We very much appreciate
Speaker 1: all of you for doing them. We did want to
Speaker 1: highlight one comment from our chat. Of course, you all
Speaker 1: have many insightful points to make, and this is a
Speaker 1: good one from at dB outsider who said, fought at
Speaker 1: noticeable delivery changes or Fought's noticeable delivery changes look to
Speaker 1: have paid off. Back to pitching on the first base
Speaker 1: side of the rubber and no longer puts his hands
Speaker 1: over his head on the wind up, much more compact delivery.
Speaker 1: Good observations here, Jack, And you know, maybe this is
Speaker 1: the key to Brandon Fought unlocking the command that we've
Speaker 1: seen from him at times in the past.
Speaker 3: Well it's kind of interesting, you know, because Brent Strom
Speaker 3: had moved him over to the third base side of
Speaker 3: the rubber famously back in twenty twenty three, So it's
Speaker 3: going to be interesting to see if this sticks and
Speaker 3: how this interplays with his new attack approach against left
Speaker 3: hand hitters. I think that's the key there, But also
Speaker 3: very very good observation about the hands overhead.
Speaker 2: I thought that was, you know, a really smart point.
Speaker 3: I even during the break, I went back and real
Speaker 3: quick and looked at a couple of pitches that he threw,
Speaker 3: and it looks a lot cleaner.
Speaker 2: So great observation.
Speaker 1: There wasn't a ton of swing and miss for Fought
Speaker 1: in this game just to strikeouts, but there also really
Speaker 1: wasn't much compelling contact from the Giants at all. Giants
Speaker 1: had a one fifty nine expected batting average when Fought
Speaker 1: exited the game, so it genuinely was just a lot
Speaker 1: of soft contact against him throughout this outing and when
Speaker 1: it came to his command, which of course is very
Speaker 1: important for Brandon Fought, there are some numbers that show
Speaker 1: how good he was in that regard. Fought had a
Speaker 1: fifty one percent in zone rate in this game, so
Speaker 1: fifty one percent of his pitches were in the strike zone.
Speaker 1: League average is forty eight point seven percent, and that
Speaker 1: was really an issue for Fought earlier in this season.
Speaker 1: His zone rate at the major league level entering today
Speaker 1: was forty five point six percent, which is which is
Speaker 1: much lower than where that number has been for Fought
Speaker 1: in the past few years. So good to see him
Speaker 1: pounding the zone. I also noticed Jackie was fifteen for
Speaker 1: nineteen in first pitch strikes and so you know, maybe
Speaker 1: he did throw an occasional fastball or sinker or whatever
Speaker 1: that caught more of the plate than you would have liked.
Speaker 1: But when you have count leverage consistently, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to turn more of those into weak pop ups
Speaker 1: and ground balls and that sort of thing. And that
Speaker 1: was the case for Fought tonight.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, as I said at the top of
Speaker 3: the show, I mean it was a nice soft landing
Speaker 3: facing the Giants. We all know that they're not a
Speaker 3: good team, and so you know, we're not going to
Speaker 3: run with this and say, hey that Brandon Fodd saw,
Speaker 3: you know, back to being at his peak self yet.
Speaker 3: But you got to you can only pitch against the
Speaker 3: lineups that you face. And you know, he did his
Speaker 3: job tonight. He did it really well, certainly something to
Speaker 3: build confidence off of. You know, his next start I
Speaker 3: believe would probably come either Sunday against the Brewers or
Speaker 3: Monday against the Padres in San Diego.
Speaker 2: Not really sure how.
Speaker 3: That lines out, but you know, either way, you know
Speaker 3: he's going to be challenged. If more so if it's
Speaker 3: the Brewers, a little less so if it's the Padres,
Speaker 3: they don't hit very well. But this is what he's
Speaker 3: got to face. And then after that he's going to
Speaker 3: have to face the Dodgers. So you know, we'll know
Speaker 3: within the next couple of starts as Brandon fought, truly
Speaker 3: improved or was this just taking advantage of a soft lineup,
Speaker 3: But you know, for tonight we're gonna celebrate it.
Speaker 2: It was a really good outing.
Speaker 1: Other things that stood out from tonight's game, it was
Speaker 1: good to see Max Kepler get off the schneid jack.
Speaker 1: He notched his first two bass hits as a member
Speaker 1: of the Diamondbacks, including a double in the bottom of
Speaker 1: that first inning. Kepler also made a really nice catch
Speaker 1: in the left field corner to end a wasn't a
Speaker 1: huge threat, but the Giants had a runner at first
Speaker 1: with two outs in the first inning and Raphael Devers
Speaker 1: at the plate who's made a lot of hard contact
Speaker 1: in this series, and Kepler made a really nice play
Speaker 1: running into the fence down the left field line.
Speaker 3: Yeah, good for him to get off the schneid for sure.
Speaker 3: You know, he'd hit a few balls hard before this,
Speaker 3: even though he hadn't gotten any results from it. So
Speaker 3: you know, if he's hitting and Lordis is hitting, that's
Speaker 3: going to help a lot. So I'm really interested to
Speaker 3: see where this goes over the next you know, week
Speaker 3: to ten days. You know, as we spoke about before,
Speaker 3: I mean by the time they get to the you know,
Speaker 3: the decision point of the trade deadline, how Max Kepler
Speaker 3: is performing is going to go a long ways to
Speaker 3: how much they feel they have to fill in at
Speaker 3: that point. Just another quick note from me. So everyone
Speaker 3: got on base in this one at least once, and
Speaker 3: seven players got on twice. Corbyn Carroll was one of
Speaker 3: the players that only got on once, and he had
Speaker 3: a rough night, a couple of strikeouts, couple of four
Speaker 3: to three groundouts before taking a walk in that eighth inning.
Speaker 3: And on that second strikeout there was a one to
Speaker 3: one pitch he swung out and very noticeably winced, and
Speaker 3: then in his next to bat when he grounded out
Speaker 3: to first base. He seemed to have either some kind
Speaker 3: of lower body issue or maybe his ankle Bob Brinley
Speaker 3: thought on the broadcast, and he only jogged slowly down
Speaker 3: the first space. So something's bothering Corbin. When I see
Speaker 3: him take a big swing and miss like that, and
Speaker 3: I see him wins like he did, you know, you're
Speaker 3: always thinking about that shoulder Prior to that. I saw
Speaker 3: a big one handed follow through and that often precipitates
Speaker 3: some shoulder soreness for him, and that's just something he's
Speaker 3: going to battle throughout his career. He's tough as nails,
Speaker 3: he's fighting through it as best he can. But he
Speaker 3: is slumping right now. He's down the two seventy two.
Speaker 3: His ops is down to eight eighty one, you know,
Speaker 3: so he's having a rough time.
Speaker 2: Also.
Speaker 3: I had been looking at like his whiff rates by month,
Speaker 3: and he started off in April it was thirty three
Speaker 3: percent and then it was only twenty three percent in May,
Speaker 3: and now it's back up almost to thirty percent again.
Speaker 3: I mean, and we can see that with our eyes.
Speaker 3: He's swinging and missing a lot. They're attacking at the
Speaker 3: top of the zone, so we'll see what happens. I
Speaker 3: mean with Corbyn, every time he seems to go into
Speaker 3: a slump, he turns right back around and gets hot again.
Speaker 3: So we'll look for that and hope that this isn't
Speaker 3: a prolonged slump for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a rough game for Corbyn, no doubt there.
Speaker 1: That at bat in the bottom of the second was
Speaker 1: particularly rough. I mean you had two on and two
Speaker 1: out and Landon Rupe just not able to find the
Speaker 1: zone to save his life. And Corbyn saw six pitches
Speaker 1: and that a bat. All of them were out of
Speaker 1: the zone and he swung at four of them and
Speaker 1: there were three whiffs, ultimately struck out for his second
Speaker 1: straight at bat. There so some rough moments for Corbyn Carroll,
Speaker 1: but he's still been the Diamondbacks best player this season.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't surprise me at all if he, you know, turns
Speaker 1: things around pretty quickly. Another hitter, if we're if we're
Speaker 1: nitpicking here, Jack and I know his name has been
Speaker 1: mentioned in the chat many times already. Peven Smith did
Speaker 1: not have a hit in this game. He went zero
Speaker 1: for three with a walk. He did battle in some
Speaker 1: during the game. The walk was not a particularly difficult walk.
Speaker 1: I think it was four pitches. Land and Roupe just
Speaker 1: really really struggle to find the zone in the in
Speaker 1: the early part of this game. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: Peven Smith is sitting one forty five, and it felt
Speaker 1: like this was an important game for him. I mean,
Speaker 1: every time the Dbacks run him out there against a
Speaker 1: right handed pitcher, you know, he's he's has to prove
Speaker 1: something here, he has to show that he belongs on
Speaker 1: this roster, and tonight he was not able to really
Speaker 1: change the course of his season at all.
Speaker 3: I believe the writings on the wall there, you know,
Speaker 3: And we'll just have to see how long it takes.
Speaker 3: But I don't think it's going to take too much
Speaker 3: longer if he doesn't turn it around.
Speaker 1: Peven now hitting one forty five this season with a
Speaker 1: four to seventy ops not not the kind of numbers
Speaker 1: that you're looking for there. On the off offensive side,
Speaker 1: we should shout out Gabrielle Moreno because he reached base
Speaker 1: four times in this game and we haven't mentioned him.
Speaker 1: And in some ways, Jack, that's just because it feels
Speaker 1: like Gaby sort of does that every game, not four times.
Speaker 1: Doesn't reach base four times every game, but man, he
Speaker 1: has been a force in the middle of this lineup,
Speaker 1: and we know he's battling the hamstring issue. He continues
Speaker 1: to not run the bases very quickly, but the offense
Speaker 1: has been outstanding.
Speaker 3: Nonetheless, he scored twice, drove in a run, you know,
Speaker 3: two hits, two walks. I mean, I think I'll take that.
Speaker 3: Gabriel Moreno is a very good offensive player. We know that,
Speaker 3: you know. And the main thing has always been Canny
Speaker 3: stay on the field and give them enough played appearances.
Speaker 3: I mean, not many catchers actually get over four hundred
Speaker 3: played appearances in a season. It's not just a handful
Speaker 3: actually that do that. But the Dvacs need that from him.
Speaker 3: They need him somehow, some way get up over four
Speaker 3: hundred play appearances. Are really close to it because they
Speaker 3: need his bat in the lineup. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: that's just that's just who he is. He's only got,
Speaker 3: you know, two more years after this one of team control.
Speaker 3: Doesn't seem like he's going to be extended. If it
Speaker 3: was going to happen, it would have already happened. So
Speaker 3: they've got two more years of Gabriel Marino before he's
Speaker 3: a free agent. Maybe there's a less minute extension, but
Speaker 3: you know, by the time you get down to those
Speaker 3: two plus more years, catchers kind of pass their peak earlier,
Speaker 3: so I don't know if he's a good extension candidate
Speaker 3: at that point. So they need to get the offense
Speaker 3: out of.
Speaker 2: Him right now.
Speaker 3: I mean, they take advantage of this right now. So
Speaker 3: he's having that kind of season he's when he's in there,
Speaker 3: when he's in the lineup, you know, he's hitting and
Speaker 3: getting on base and been very productive. So great to
Speaker 3: see from Gabby. I think we'll see.
Speaker 1: More quick, underrated moments from Gabby that I want to mention.
Speaker 1: To start off the bottom of the third in Gabby
Speaker 1: struck out and then he didn't he a three to
Speaker 1: two pitch was called strike three, and then moreno challenged
Speaker 1: and it flipped a strikeout into a walk. It's exactly
Speaker 1: the kind of ABS challenge usage that you want to see.
Speaker 1: And uh and theoretically, Jack, if if Gabby doesn't challenge
Speaker 1: there and turn that strikeout into a walk, the Diamondbacks
Speaker 1: don't score at all in in that fourth inning, and
Speaker 1: instead they were excuse me, that was the third inning
Speaker 1: and instead of that, the Diamondbacks are are able to
Speaker 1: score three runs there. So Gabby is doing it offensively.
Speaker 1: He's he's of course doing his thing behind the plate,
Speaker 1: save Nolan Arnado in foul territory at one point in
Speaker 1: this game as well, So really good stuff from Gabby
Speaker 1: across the board in this one. Switching gears to last
Speaker 1: night's game. Last night's game, Jack was a little bit
Speaker 1: less of a thorough domin into performance from the Diamondbacks.
Speaker 1: Things got quite interesting with Paul Sewald on the mound
Speaker 1: in the ninth inning. Diamondbacks just find a way to
Speaker 1: scrape by with a five to four win in that one.
Speaker 1: But of course the big story in that game, Jack
Speaker 1: was at Wardo Rodriguez, who went out there and through
Speaker 1: seven innings or more for the sixth time this season,
Speaker 1: seven innings of one run ball. He had one strikeout,
Speaker 1: but it didn't really seem to matter. Eduardo just continues
Speaker 1: to do this time after time after time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's at this point.
Speaker 3: I mean, we are all talking about It's actually a
Speaker 3: conversation that I initiated last night in the interview room
Speaker 3: with Toy and we asked Prodomo again, and then I
Speaker 3: asked you rod himself. Hey, you know this just looks
Speaker 3: like an all Star season. I mean, of course, story Seid,
Speaker 3: He's got my vote, and you know, Prodomo saying as
Speaker 3: praise is, and Erod himself said, look, I'm not thinking
Speaker 3: about that. You know, I've got more starts here to make.
Speaker 3: You know, if that happens, great, ask me then how
Speaker 3: it feels. But he wasn't really willing to engage in
Speaker 3: that conversation. But he's fourth in the National League in ERA.
Speaker 3: And while we talk a lot about the expected stats
Speaker 3: and the under the hood stuff, you know, at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, he's seven to two with a
Speaker 3: two two one ERA, and he's repeatedly going seven innings.
Speaker 3: I think he's done it what six times now. However
Speaker 3: many the team's thirteen and four in his starts, he's
Speaker 3: been the ace of the staff. So you know, he's
Speaker 3: he's earned an All Star spot. I mean he's got
Speaker 3: a couple more starts, you know, two three more starts
Speaker 3: in there before the All Star Game.
Speaker 2: Fingers crossed. He doesn't have a blow up.
Speaker 3: Start and you know, cost him a shot in the game.
Speaker 3: But I do want to say that when we look
Speaker 3: at the under the hood stuff, what what we can
Speaker 3: really see is his execution pitches in with runners in
Speaker 3: scoring position especially, and the ability to get outs and
Speaker 3: limit damage. It's not fluky like, it's not lucky. He's
Speaker 3: not doing that just by you know, balls going right
Speaker 3: at people and getting that of things easily.
Speaker 2: I mean that happens sometimes. I mean all of.
Speaker 3: The expected stuff, the XBA and the x slug, the
Speaker 3: whiff rates, the hard hit rates, all of that, you know,
Speaker 3: analytics stuff that we look at shows that he's really
Speaker 3: been phenomenal with runners in scoring position. And that's why
Speaker 3: is left on base percentage is so high. That's why
Speaker 3: despite a very mediocre strikeout and walk rate, he's getting
Speaker 3: it done when he needs to. And we talked about this,
Speaker 3: you know previously. I mean he's found an ability to
Speaker 3: you know, hump it up an extra mile or two
Speaker 3: and really bear down and execute on pitches, make that
Speaker 3: change up, drop off the table, snap off his curveball,
Speaker 3: you know, land his fastball at the top of the zone.
Speaker 3: He's doing all those things. He's in the zone. He's
Speaker 3: absolutely in the zone, and fingers crossed, he can stay there.
Speaker 1: His location plus, which is an advanced stat that measures
Speaker 1: a pitcher's command, one hundred being average his location plus
Speaker 1: and yesterday's game was one twenty, which is basically as
Speaker 1: high as we ever see from anyone. So yeah, even
Speaker 1: though Eduardo is not generating a ton of swing and miss,
Speaker 1: there absolutely is something to his command being far and
Speaker 1: a way better in twenty twenty six than it was
Speaker 1: a season ago. To put some numbers on what you
Speaker 1: were just talking about with runners in scoring position, this
Speaker 1: is a screenshot that you sent me earlier today when
Speaker 1: we were discussing this. With runners in scoring position, opposing
Speaker 1: hitters have a one to eighty six expected batting average
Speaker 1: and a two to sixty expected slugging percentage against e Rod.
Speaker 1: So even though yes, there absolutely is a wide gap
Speaker 1: between the actual numbers and the expected numbers. And you know,
Speaker 1: does e Rod project to have a low too era
Speaker 1: the rest of the season. Certainly not, then the numbers
Speaker 1: would not suggest that. But as you said, he's not
Speaker 1: getting lucky necessarily in those big moments. He is absolutely
Speaker 1: executing at an elite level in the biggest moments of
Speaker 1: the game, and he's being rewarded for that. And in
Speaker 1: terms of his All Star case, Jack, you know, I
Speaker 1: kind of feared a couple of weeks ago, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: his ra is good, but also the peripherals are not
Speaker 1: going to be anywhere close to guys like Paul Schemes
Speaker 1: and you know, Chase Burns and Christopher Sanchez. We know
Speaker 1: how stacked the National League is this season when it
Speaker 1: comes to pitching. But I think there's room for e
Speaker 1: Rod on the roster given that he is fourth in
Speaker 1: the NL in era. I believe he's also top four
Speaker 1: in innings pitched. He's average six innings per start, which
Speaker 1: is something that not many starting pitchers are doing in
Speaker 1: this day and age. And so yeah, I mean, is
Speaker 1: he going to be the first man out of the
Speaker 1: bullpen in the All Star Game?
Speaker 2: Probably not.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of really good pitchers that are
Speaker 1: gonna make that All Star team. But does e Rod
Speaker 1: fit somewhere in the top ten to twelve starters in
Speaker 1: the National League. Absolutely? And based on how many starters
Speaker 1: have appeared in the All Star Game in recent years,
Speaker 1: how many guys have been put on that roster, I
Speaker 1: think there's a pretty good chance that e Rod finds
Speaker 1: his way there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it just depends on like who lines
Speaker 3: up to not be available to pitch in the All
Speaker 3: Star Game, right, I mean, you got Look, you got Mizerowski,
Speaker 3: you got Sale, you got Christopher Sanchez. Chase Burns is
Speaker 3: nine to one with a two three six ERA. Max
Speaker 3: Meyer from Miami is nine and oh with a two
Speaker 3: six Oh yeah, Momoto's got a two six seven ERA.
Speaker 2: He's eight and five. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Justin Robleski from the Dodgers is nine and two with
Speaker 3: a two seven one. Foster Griffin, so the Nationals is
Speaker 3: doing really well. Logan Webb is super hot. And oh,
Speaker 3: by the way, there's Paul Skins. He's six and seven
Speaker 3: with a three to one o EER. But it's kind
Speaker 3: of hard to imagine him being left off the All
Speaker 3: Star team. And so you have the double dynamic of
Speaker 3: there are certain teams that maybe you know that's their
Speaker 3: starting pitcher or whatever may be their lone representative. But
Speaker 3: then you also have a couple of maybe one, two
Speaker 3: or three guys that aren't going to be able to
Speaker 3: go because they pitched too close to the to the
Speaker 3: All Star Game in their final start before the blake
Speaker 3: before the break. So we'll just have to see how
Speaker 3: that shakes out. A lot of times, all of that
Speaker 3: really feeds into who makes the team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, now that is that is also a great point.
Speaker 1: Twelve pitchers yet picked per league and if you just
Speaker 1: kind of list out the guys who are deserving in
Speaker 1: the National League, Yes, Yamamoto is going to be their
Speaker 1: skins is going to be there, Max Meyers, you said,
Speaker 1: Kyle Harrison, I think has a pretty good case, even
Speaker 1: though I don't think he's a qualified starter right now.
Speaker 1: Zach Wheeler maybe has a shot there as well. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you're when you're throwing as many innings as erod is
Speaker 1: and you're preventing runs like he is, and your team's
Speaker 1: thirteen and four when you're on the mound, that's the
Speaker 1: makings of a really strong case. So I think I
Speaker 1: think Eduardo is a in a pretty pretty good spot there.
Speaker 1: With regard to the way that that game went yesterday,
Speaker 1: I guess we should we should maybe mention that things
Speaker 1: have gotten a little bit less than stellar for Paul
Speaker 1: Seawald here lately. On one hand, he is nineteen for
Speaker 1: twenty and save opportunities he bent but did not break.
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, his season era is now
Speaker 1: four point five zero, not really what you're looking for
Speaker 1: from your closer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know. The funny thing is, though, like peripherals,
Speaker 3: depends on which one you want to look at. Right
Speaker 3: his xcras three two four, but his FIP and x
Speaker 3: FIP are both around four point four, So you know,
Speaker 3: I mean, this is who he is. He's going to
Speaker 3: have blow aboutings. Look, he's gonna blow some save folks.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know that's going to happen. We know
Speaker 3: that Paul Seawall was not going to go thirty nine
Speaker 3: for forty and save chances, and so they're going to come.
Speaker 3: The question is is when will they come? And can
Speaker 3: he space them out enough so that he doesn't lose
Speaker 3: confidence in himself and the team doesn't lose confidence in him.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you.
Speaker 3: Go through a stretch where you know, you blow three
Speaker 3: in a row like he did in twenty twenty four
Speaker 3: and struggle in a non saved situation or two on
Speaker 3: top of that, then all of a sudden, you know,
Speaker 3: everybody loses confidence. But you know, maybe he converts the
Speaker 3: next six in a row and you know he's still
Speaker 3: going strong, but we know a blown sab or two
Speaker 3: are coming. You know, hopefully he can just space them
Speaker 3: out so that there isn't a crisis of confidence.
Speaker 1: Do we know that a bone save is coming? Are
Speaker 1: we sure that Paul Seawalald isn't just gonna keep doing
Speaker 1: this or he has an era the mid fours, and
Speaker 1: yet every save opportunity just manages to squeak by.
Speaker 2: Look, there's some pretty good teams out there, yeah waiting,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, you know, to.
Speaker 3: Be fair, Look and they mentioned it, you know, like
Speaker 3: he hadn't pitched very much. You know, his his outings
Speaker 3: have been far and few between. Over the last few weeks,
Speaker 3: he just really has. You know, he had a state
Speaker 3: where he pitched like three out of four or four
Speaker 3: out of five games or something like crazy like that,
Speaker 3: and then for the next ten to eleven days he
Speaker 3: hardly pitched maybe twice, so you know, maybe he was
Speaker 3: a little rusty.
Speaker 2: He did look like he didn't have his command.
Speaker 3: But the bottom line is is when teams see Paul
Speaker 3: a little too frequently, they start to get to him
Speaker 3: because it's all about deception, and once you see him
Speaker 3: a little too much, then that's less to.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, he's definitely a deception sort of pitcher and
Speaker 1: that can be a little bit hit or miss on
Speaker 1: the whole nineteen for twenty and save opportunities, I think
Speaker 1: you'll still take that. Diamondbacks bullpen at large Jack has
Speaker 1: regressed a little bit here. The month of June is
Speaker 1: now complete for this baseball team, and the bullpen stats
Speaker 1: in June were not newly as good as the two
Speaker 1: months prior. Of course, we saw this in yesterday's game.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just Seawalld giving up the two runs in
Speaker 1: the ninth Kevin Ginkle also gave up a run in
Speaker 1: the eighth inning. Brandon Garcia came in and sort of
Speaker 1: saved the day there, striking out Raphael Devers on three pitches.
Speaker 1: That's been a trend with Brandon Garcia saving the day
Speaker 1: for the Diamondbacks here recently. But yeah, you look at
Speaker 1: the bullpen numbers here over over the last month compared
Speaker 1: to March and April and the month of May, and
Speaker 1: you're looking at a five to two oh e R
Speaker 1: in June for that group entering this game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we did an update today.
Speaker 3: Of course, the bullpen only gave up the one run
Speaker 3: in the last three and two thirds, so probably dip
Speaker 3: down closer to the lower fives there.
Speaker 2: But it's just interesting. One of the things I said,
Speaker 2: I posted this out.
Speaker 3: On Twitter in the morning, and one of the things
Speaker 3: I said was, Okay, you know we're past the point
Speaker 3: where we can keep saying, oh, well, if you take
Speaker 3: out James.
Speaker 2: McCann and if you take out you know, Joe Ross.
Speaker 3: I mean, every team has a couple of two, three
Speaker 3: four relievers that gave up a lot of runs that
Speaker 3: are no longer on their active roster. So you know,
Speaker 3: if you're going to do that with the Diamondbacks, you
Speaker 3: got to do it. Go through every team and guess
Speaker 3: what everybody's era goes down if you do that. Now,
Speaker 3: in a very short sample, when we were just looking
Speaker 3: at the first month of the season, that was a
Speaker 3: little bit more of a story. But you know, we're
Speaker 3: we're past a halfway mark now and you know, to me,
Speaker 3: it's just really stands out.
Speaker 2: I mean, two point one eight bullpen e r A
Speaker 2: in May and over five in both April and June.
Speaker 3: So we'll see where it goes from here. They've been
Speaker 3: heavily taxed, as we've talked about, and the second line
Speaker 3: of defense isn't very strong, as we've talked about. So
Speaker 3: Mike hasn did say if he's a buyer, he's going
Speaker 3: after bullpen help. And when I look at a chart
Speaker 3: like this, you know, in addition to the era we show.
Speaker 2: FIP and wOBA against.
Speaker 3: You know, those numbers all tend to back up the
Speaker 3: less than stellar results in April and June, So don't
Speaker 3: be surprised if Mike hasn does go after a reliever
Speaker 3: or two to bolster this bullpen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that is safe to say. If the
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks are in position to buy in the next few weeks,
Speaker 1: that's that's going to be something they target.
Speaker 2: No doubt.
Speaker 1: We have more to get to on this episode. We'll
Speaker 1: maybe talk a little bit more bullpen. We're also going
Speaker 1: to look ahead at what's coming up for the Diamondbacks,
Speaker 1: see where they are in the wild card standings, So
Speaker 1: don't go anywhere. We'll be back on Snake's territory right
Speaker 1: after this.
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Speaker 1: We are back here on Snake's territory. One more quick
Speaker 1: note on the bullpen that I want to make Jack.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at one of my favorite bullpen stats, which
Speaker 1: is win probability added. What ultimately matters when it comes
Speaker 1: to your bullpen isn't really how many runs you gave up.
Speaker 1: It's like, did you win the game? Like that's ultimately
Speaker 1: the point of a bullpen is just finding ways to
Speaker 1: seal the deal when you give them a lead. And
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks and win probability added their bullpen is seventh
Speaker 1: in all of baseball entering today. And that kind of
Speaker 1: tracks like, even though the bullpen er is middle of
Speaker 1: the road, there have been a d number of games
Speaker 1: like last night where yes, Kevin Ginkle gave up a run,
Speaker 1: it wasn't great. Paul Seawalald gave up too, it wasn't great,
Speaker 1: but the Diamondbacks still won the game. And that's a
Speaker 1: situation where your bullpenny ra is going to go up
Speaker 1: for sure, but your win probability added actually improves because
Speaker 1: you did not have a one hundred chance of winning
Speaker 1: the game quite when Kevin Ginkle entered the game and
Speaker 1: he had the Diamondbacks ultimately came away with a win,
Speaker 1: and and and yeah, I mean that's that's the most
Speaker 1: important thing at the end of the day.
Speaker 3: I don't disagree with that in principle. I just think
Speaker 3: that you know, at a certain point, it catches up
Speaker 3: to you if you're not careful, right, Yeah, So let
Speaker 3: me just double check something. D WPA FO that's the
Speaker 3: wrong game, so it doesn't help. Never mind, you can
Speaker 3: look it up by game and by reliever.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, yeah, I mean I think Paul Sewald gets
Speaker 1: credited with positive WPA because the Diamondbacks won the game,
Speaker 1: and he was he was the one to finish the job,
Speaker 1: even though it certainly was not pretty. We have a
Speaker 1: question in the chat. This is from CC seven Dash Dbacks.
Speaker 1: This one is for you, Jack, Jack Corbyn. Carroll has
Speaker 1: struggled since moving down to the number three spot this season.
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on his current placement in the
Speaker 1: batting order? What do you what do you think?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean leading off, you know, the first few
Speaker 3: pitches you're going to see, you're probably going to see
Speaker 3: more fastballs, So you know that should help anybody who's
Speaker 3: leading off the game, they're gonna they should see more fastballs.
Speaker 3: So maybe that's a factor. But you know, up until
Speaker 3: very recently, Kutel, I mean first batter or a game, was
Speaker 3: struggling and then of course I asked Tory about that,
Speaker 3: and then last night he hit a home run in
Speaker 3: his first at bat, So you know, I think it's
Speaker 3: more coincidence than anything else. I think players just get hot,
Speaker 3: they go cold, and it sometimes it just coincides where
Speaker 3: they were moved to. But it doesn't necessarily mean that
Speaker 3: it changed anything in Corbyn's approach because of where he
Speaker 3: was moved in the lineup, like, it's hard to get
Speaker 3: inside his head. I know if I asked him, hey,
Speaker 3: does moving third in the order change your approach and
Speaker 3: the way you're looking at things, I know he's going
Speaker 3: to say, no, it doesn't affect me at all. You know,
Speaker 3: he's still trying to go up there and do the
Speaker 3: same things at the plate. So I don't really think so.
Speaker 3: But you can't completely rule it out either, I guess.
Speaker 1: Before we get to a look ahead at what's coming
Speaker 1: up to the Diamondbacks where they sit in the standings,
Speaker 1: all of those good things, we did get a couple
Speaker 1: of injury updates today that were pretty big, the main
Speaker 1: one being about Michael Soroka. We talked about him in
Speaker 1: our last show and how it looked like the news
Speaker 1: there was good he might be able to get back,
Speaker 1: like right after the All Star break, and today we
Speaker 1: got an even more positive report on Michael Soroka. This
Speaker 1: comes from Jose Romero, our pal covers the team over
Speaker 1: at the Arizona Republic. Jose wrote about how Michael Soroka
Speaker 1: through a bullpen session on Tuesday. His next bullpen is
Speaker 1: scheduled for Friday, and the Diamondbacks are not ruling out
Speaker 1: that Soroka could return before the All Star break.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when Tori spoke to us yesterday, he was noncommittal
Speaker 3: about whether his bullpen session schedule would start this week
Speaker 3: or next week. He was very like, well, I'm not
Speaker 3: really sure if it's going to start this weekend. It's
Speaker 3: took kind of a big difference. Yeah, then today, right,
Speaker 3: So when I wrote my article, I erred on the
Speaker 3: side of conservatism, and I thought, well, okay, if he's
Speaker 3: not going to start his bullpen, say till next Tuesday.
Speaker 3: Because Tory did say it's going to be a Tuesday
Speaker 3: Friday bullpen protocol. He did say that he's not going
Speaker 3: to have to start from scratch up for flat ground
Speaker 3: and it's going to be a pretty quick turnaround. But
Speaker 3: he just wasn't clear about whether the bullpens were going
Speaker 3: to start this week or next week.
Speaker 2: And then boom he threw today.
Speaker 3: So that being the case, you know, he was asked
Speaker 3: whether or not he could, you know, say, whether Soroka
Speaker 3: would actually make it back before the All Star break,
Speaker 3: and Tory, you know, he said, well, I'm hopeful, so
Speaker 3: we'll see. I mean, there's a chance of that. But
Speaker 3: when I dove into what Tory actually said some of
Speaker 3: the news that came out. Oh, Soroka is going to
Speaker 3: be back before the All Star Break. Maybe not quite
Speaker 3: so sure. I think it's possible. I'm not ruling it out,
Speaker 3: but you know, things got to go really well for him.
Speaker 3: He's you know, got to get ramped up pretty quickly
Speaker 3: to be able to do that. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: there's only eleven more games, so where are you going
Speaker 3: to slot him in? And you know, maybe he gets
Speaker 3: in one start before the All Star break.
Speaker 2: It's possible.
Speaker 3: Not ruling it out, but you know, probably the best
Speaker 3: course of action with him is don't rush him. I mean,
Speaker 3: Brandon thought's coming off a positive outing, and you know,
Speaker 3: Jose Cabrera has pitched pretty well. You know, so unless
Speaker 3: you're talking about using him to replace either Zach er Merrill,
Speaker 3: I don't really see the point of it because then
Speaker 3: you're talking about having him pitch basically Saturday or Sunday
Speaker 3: against the Dodgers and maybe not being fully stretched out.
Speaker 3: I think it's wiser to just let it ride until
Speaker 3: post All Star break bring him back. You know the
Speaker 3: seventeen eighteenth.
Speaker 1: Well, knowing the Diamondbacks and how they've gone about their
Speaker 1: business this season. It's hard to believe that they won't
Speaker 1: be aggressive in getting Michael Soroka back back to the
Speaker 1: big leagues for better or worse. I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: I can understand that Soroka might not need any kind
Speaker 1: of rehab outing or anything like that. The injury happened
Speaker 1: just ten days ago today, and the fact that he
Speaker 1: was able to throw a bullpen, you know, maybe it's
Speaker 1: just another couple of bullpens and then he's good to go.
Speaker 1: So we'll be sure to keep you all updated there.
Speaker 1: The other injury update we have is about James McCann.
Speaker 1: He took live abs in a game situation on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: which is today, and could report to Triple A Reno
Speaker 1: at the end of this week. That is the expectation there.
Speaker 1: So probably not far away from seeing James McCann back
Speaker 1: in the big leagues as well.
Speaker 2: They changed the plan every day.
Speaker 3: Yesterday, Tory told us that McCann was going to play
Speaker 3: five innings in.
Speaker 2: The ACL Thursday.
Speaker 3: Instead, they moved him up two days, had him take
Speaker 3: live abs, and then.
Speaker 2: Now he's on his way to Reno. So it's just
Speaker 2: kind of funny.
Speaker 3: I mean, they're really I don't know if they're panicking
Speaker 3: or guys are just recovering quicker than they thought they would,
Speaker 3: but all the plans seem to be moving up.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess, I guess he could play. He
Speaker 1: could still play in the complex. On Thursday, Tory just
Speaker 1: said that he's he could report to a minor league
Speaker 1: affiliate soon and is set to play in Reno at
Speaker 1: the end of this week. Both of those elements were
Speaker 1: part of what Jose Romero wrote there, so either way,
Speaker 1: James McCann not too far away from rejoining the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Speaker 1: Of course, the Diamondbacks have one game left against the
Speaker 1: San Francisco Giants in this series. Unfortunately, they cannot play
Speaker 1: the Giants every day for the rest of the season,
Speaker 1: but the Diamondbacks will have Zach Gallen on the mound
Speaker 1: tomorrow against Trevor McDonald in the finale of the series.
Speaker 1: I guess heading into that, we'll take a quick look
Speaker 1: here at the standings where the d Backs sit after
Speaker 1: this game. They, of course, are now back up over
Speaker 1: five hundred at forty three and forty two. Unfortunately, the
Speaker 1: Saint Louis Cardinals have won each of their last couple
Speaker 1: of games, and so the d Backs don't gain any
Speaker 1: ground there. They're still two and a half games out,
Speaker 1: but I guess they now only have to jump four teams.
Speaker 1: I think it is Jack, because they would lose the
Speaker 1: tiebreaker with the Nationals.
Speaker 3: As of the moment, yes, I mean, basically they are
Speaker 3: behind the Marlins and the Nationals both in the tiebreaker,
Speaker 3: as well as the Pirates.
Speaker 1: We probably should take the Marlins somewhat seriously as well.
Speaker 1: The Marlins were the best team in baseball in the
Speaker 1: month of June. They went twenty and six and outscored
Speaker 1: opponents one hundred and twenty nine to seventy eight. And
Speaker 1: they're really tied with the Cardinals for that third wild
Speaker 1: card spot. So Padres have taken a bit of a
Speaker 1: step back here the past few days, but the Marlins
Speaker 1: full steam ahead. They won their game again today. I
Speaker 1: know you put out a poll earlier today, Jack about
Speaker 1: how many games the Diamondbacks would win between now and
Speaker 1: the All Star Break. Of course, this included the game
Speaker 1: that the Diamondbacks won today against the Giants, So it's
Speaker 1: twelve games between now and the All Star Break, these
Speaker 1: two against the Giants, including today. Then they have three
Speaker 1: against the Brewers, four against the Padres next week, and
Speaker 1: then three against the Dodgers after that, the Padres and
Speaker 1: Dodgers series, of course, being on the road. And you
Speaker 1: asked the question Jack, how many of those twelve games
Speaker 1: would the dbacs win? Sixteen percent said three or less,
Speaker 1: About forty eight percent said four or five. About twenty
Speaker 1: nine percent, feeling optimistic, said the Dbacks would win six
Speaker 1: or seven. And then just six point four percent say
Speaker 1: the d Backs would win eight of those games or more.
Speaker 1: They've already got one in the can here, Jack, So
Speaker 1: what do you what do you think which one of
Speaker 1: these would you pick?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, heading into today, I figured five is
Speaker 3: what I was thinking. Yeah, honestly, I think it's going
Speaker 3: to be really tough against the Brewers. That's a really
Speaker 3: good team that plays the Diamondbacks tough. I think they can.
Speaker 3: You know, San Diego is a tough place to go
Speaker 3: in and play a four game series and win the series.
Speaker 3: I know that San Diego is a flawed team. They're starting,
Speaker 3: pitching isn't good, they're hitting isn't good, but they still
Speaker 3: got that bullpen and they play close, and you know,
Speaker 3: I mean it's tough to do better than two and two, right,
Speaker 3: And you know, so if you figure pick up two
Speaker 3: wins against San Diego, maybe going to La and steal
Speaker 3: a game, you know, and go one and two, and
Speaker 3: so that's three. The Giants win is four, and it's
Speaker 3: just hard to feel optimistic about beating the Brewers. Now,
Speaker 3: the flip side of all of this is, you know,
Speaker 3: fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame
Speaker 3: on me. We see them playing better against a team
Speaker 3: like the Giants, but that's not going to fool anybody
Speaker 3: into thinking that Dbacks are a good team. But the
Speaker 3: game is played on the field, not on our computers.
Speaker 3: And if they go out there and in those ten
Speaker 3: games against the Brewers and Padres and Dodgers, if they
Speaker 3: went out and won six or seven of those games,
Speaker 3: then all of a sudden, it not only helps the record,
Speaker 3: but it flips the narrative really.
Speaker 2: Fast, like, oh, hey, they can be good teams.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, don't underestimate just how important this is.
Speaker 3: Mike Casen, you know, gave some extensive interviews on the
Speaker 3: radio and to a couple of my colleagues in the
Speaker 3: press box, Steve and Nick and you know, basically what
Speaker 3: he's saying is the team on the field is going
Speaker 3: to make the decision of whether I buy or sell.
Speaker 3: He's a lot less emphatic about I'm going to be
Speaker 3: a buyer, and we'll be talking more about the trade
Speaker 3: deadline than you know in coming episodes. But where are
Speaker 3: they going to be heading into the All Star Break?
Speaker 2: I think is critical.
Speaker 3: I think that you can't go into the All Star
Speaker 3: Break having, you know, lost seven or eight of these
Speaker 3: twelve games, and I think at that point, Mike's mind
Speaker 3: is probably going to be ninety percent made up towards
Speaker 3: so or.
Speaker 2: Not by.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I think that is very fair. This is
Speaker 1: going to be a huge test for the Diamondbacks, coming
Speaker 1: up against three opponents who are right at the thick
Speaker 1: of the race. Of course, the Brewers and Dodgers in
Speaker 1: a great position. The Padre is just right on the
Speaker 1: doorstep of the playoff picture in the National League for now,
Speaker 1: though for tomorrow, the Diamondbacks have one more game against
Speaker 1: the San Francisco Giants, see if they can beat up
Speaker 1: on them once again. Go from eight to oh to
Speaker 1: nine to zero against the Giants this season. As I
Speaker 1: said earlier, it'll be Zach Gallon and Trevor McDonald going
Speaker 1: in that game. It is a night game for the
Speaker 1: series finale. No day game tomorrow for getaway Day for
Speaker 1: either team, So the Diamondbacks will play another night game
Speaker 1: and you can expect another show from us on Thursday morning.
Speaker 1: We'll record record an episode on Thursday morning. Try to
Speaker 1: get it out Thursday mid morning, Thursday early afternoon, something
Speaker 1: like that. And I'll also say here that will be
Speaker 1: a mail bag episode. We already put a tweet out
Speaker 1: asking for questions. Maybe do the same thing over on
Speaker 1: Reddit as well, so be sure to submit your questions
Speaker 1: for that episode. It's one of our favorite things to
Speaker 1: do around here is to dig into what's on everyone's
Speaker 1: mind when it comes to this Diamondbacks team. Thank you
Speaker 1: to all of you for being with us on this episode.
Speaker 1: We really appreciate your time. You can find us on
Speaker 1: social media. I am at jesse En Friedman on Twitter.
Speaker 1: Jack is at Shoe Wizard fifty nine in our show
Speaker 1: is at Snake's Territory. You can find Jack's written work
Speaker 1: over at Arizona Diamondbacks on SI and Jack, what's on
Speaker 1: your mind? I see you you have a thought to share.
Speaker 3: Well, I want to share at Gray Mantle four't thought,
Speaker 3: which I thought was actually triggered something in my mind.
Speaker 3: I thought it was pretty cool. Maybe McCann can save Zach.
Speaker 3: He said, so, Gray Man, Well, that's a great question,
Speaker 3: because maybe they're moving him up so that after this
Speaker 3: one start, Zack's next start after this is what James
Speaker 3: McCann behind the plate and I'm sure that he was
Speaker 3: saying this a little bit tongue in cheek, but you know,
Speaker 3: Zach has pitch better with James McCann and maybe that
Speaker 3: will help. So maybe that's a reason to kind of
Speaker 3: move him up and get him back in here and
Speaker 3: try to get him behind the plate for Zach Gallen
Speaker 3: and try to salvage that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great point. I mean, whatever it takes
Speaker 1: to get Zach Gallen back on track the Diamondbacks to
Speaker 1: figure are there, They're going to be doing that with
Speaker 1: lots of enthusiasm, trying to see if they can get
Speaker 1: Gallon back on course here in twenty twenty six. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you again to all of you for being with
Speaker 1: us on this episode. We really appreciate your time, and
Speaker 1: we'll be back once again on Thursday morning. With another
Speaker 1: episode of Snake's Territory
Speaker 2: FO People