PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - D-backs-Cubs: Revisiting last year's September series, talking Bellinger, Imanaga, Counsell, more

Episode Date: April 15, 2024

In another edition of On the Record, Jesse previews this week's Diamondbacks-Cubs series with Ryan Herrera, Cubs beat writer for CHGO Sports. Jesse and Ryan look back on what happened when the teams played last September, what the Cubs did and did not accomplish over the offseason, if this is beginning of the end for Kyle Hendricks and more.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Arizona Lottery: Visit http://www.AZAdventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with the Arizona Lottery and for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes! Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Empire: Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! Receive a $350 OFF discount when you use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to another edition of On the Record where I, Jesse Friedman, am interviewing beatwriters of opposing teams to preview every series that the Diamondbacks play the rest of the way. And of course, the Diamondbacks are facing the Chicago Cubs here to start the week. And of course, that means that we get to have good friend of the show, Ryan Herrera, from our friends over at CHGO, joining us today on On the Record. So, Ryan, thanks for hopping on. We appreciate it. Thanks for having me. That's up, Jesse.

Yeah, you have to pretend that you like me just for like the next 15 minutes or so. And then we can go back to normal. Ryan, I want to start by going back to the last time the Diamondbacks and the Cubs played. Of course, this was September of last year. The Diamondbacks and Cubs played all of their games during the 2020s season in the month of September as the postseason race was heating up. I believe it was September 7th when the Diamondbacks went to Wrigley Field. at that point, they were four games behind the Cubs and the standings. The Cubs seemed to have a strong hold on a wild card spot in the National League.

And then the Diamondbacks went in and took three out of four in Chicago. There was the Zach Allen complete game shutout. That was a one-nothing win. I think there was another extra inning win in there. A lot of close games. D-backs take three out of four. And then the next weekend, the Cubs come to Arizona to Chase Field and the Diamondback sweep all three games there. one of those, of course, an insane 13 inning game that involved Evan Longoria pulling off like the slide of his life in order to help the Diamondbacks find their way to victory in that game.

So the Diamondbacks wound up winning six out of seven games from the Cubs down the stretch in September. And if you look at the standings, I mean, that's really why the Diamondbacks were able to make the playoffs. And the Cubs weren't in some ways is just because of the outcome of those seven games. And when I think about the Cubs, Ryan, I think about like the office. season that they had. I know on the field there wasn't necessarily a ton happening, but they do have a new manager now. They of course have Craig counsel at the helm. I'm curious, like, how much fallout do you think there was from the Cubs not making the playoffs? Like, does Craig, is Craig counsel the manager of the Cubs right now? I guess if things go

different in September and the Cubs actually do make the postseason. That's like, that's a tough question to answer. It's not a tough question to answer. but it's like it's tough to know for sure just because like the Cubs didn't necessarily fire David Ross, right? Like they had to fire David Ross to be able to hire Craig Counsel. But it wasn't like they fired David Ross, opened up the manager search and Craig counsel landing in Chicago. It was it was more of like, like, you know, even at the end of the season, Jed Hoyer, Tom Ricketts, all the people above David Ross, like still like said how good of a job they thought he did last year, said he's our manager, blah, blah, blah.

And then obviously when Craig counsel is still not signed by November 1st or second, whatever day it was that he officially, his contract ended with the Brewers, and he's still a free agent. The Cubs then go talk to him in secret and only like four people actually know this happens, that he agrees to come to Chicago. And then obviously David Ross is fired in order to hire Craig Counsel. So it wasn't like a traditional firing. We're finding a new manager.

Oh, here comes Craig Counsel. It was like, okay, like the front office sees a way to upgrade what they believe is an upgrade in the manager's seat, which, you know, it is. Like, Craig Counsel is one of the best managers in baseball. Sure. He's earned that title over the last nine, ten years, whatever it's been. So it was an upgrade in the manager's seat and they decided to pounce on that opportunity. So, yeah, so the original question is I don't know for sure that Craig Counsel is. is the manager, if the Cubs don't, if the Cubs do make the playoffs, probably less likely that they go out

and get him. But it's definitely still a possibility because of the idea that if you're looking for an upgrade in a manager seat, like Craig Counsel, is it an upgrade over David Ross? Yeah, I mean, on paper, I guess he's an upgrade over the vast majority of managers in the league. Very well respected, certainly, as you said. Cubs coming in, nine and six coming into this series, Diamondbacks pulled, pulled even on the year to 500 yesterday. So I'm curious, I guess, just how are the vibes in Chicago early on in the season? It seems like they're off to a pretty decent start. Well, definitely better after winning the series in Seattle.

They, you know, it's funny because, like, as most fan bases go, the Cubs fan bases lives and rides or lives and dies with every single game. so when they lose, it's a lot of anger when they win. It's a lot of happiness. But I think the vibes are good. I mean, you look at a 9 and 6 record right now, you know, considering who they have on the schedule, they've played the Rangers and the Dodgers already, the Padres, the Mariners. Obviously, they're in Arizona now and have a couple other tough opponents coming up the rest of April.

Like being where they are right now, 9 and 6, midway through April, was definitely on the good side of scenarios for, where the Cubs could be, especially when you consider the fact that they didn't have James and Tyone coming into the year, that Justin Steele got hurt on opening day. Now they're one of their better bullpen pieces and Julian Meriwether's hurt. Just like some of the injuries they've dealt with already testing that pitching depth in April. You didn't know what to see what to expect from that, but they've stepped up and won some tough games, won some close games, got gotten a couple blowouts in there. And yeah, no, nine and six with the schedule they've had, but the injuries they've had like people should take that because you mean you average that out over a 162 games they're on pace

to win I think it's like 97 games something like that so um it it doesn't look great early in the season or like you wish there was a couple more wins in there um that the cubs maybe could have had but it is a long season you know that I know that it's a marathon of a season and you continue to just build good stretches on top of each other you look at the end of the season you look at the end of the season and you have a really good record at that point. So yeah, I mean, there's definitely been a couple lows that have had fans pulling their hair out. But overall, I think the vibes are really good in Chicago right now.

Will Shoda Imanaga ever give up a run? I don't know. Like, he's been definitely better than like expected, right? Like he's not that no, everyone is expecting badness or anything out of him, but It's just, you know, he's faced the Dodgers and did well. Like the Rockies, obviously at home was a good starting point for him. His first start was against the Rockies. And so, yeah, he's just been great.

I mean, the stuff that we've heard about that we saw in spring training, it's coming in here and it's looking good and then hitters aren't used to it, obviously, all that stuff. So he's come up and he's played really well. He's pitched really well. And I think for what? for one, I think just consistently getting more length out of him as a goal. Sure.

Because, you know, obviously he hasn't. The Dodgers, his start against the Dodgers got, you know, taken out after four innings because of a rain delay and stuff like that. So it's not like he hasn't been, had shown the ability to get through starts. But I think this last start was like five and two thirds, if I'm not mistaken. So that's still solid length from him. Yeah. So that's like just consistently getting that length.

is obviously what you're really looking forward to seeing out of this guy. But as far as scoring a run, it's going to be hard because he's a good pitcher. He's, uh, well, the one thing you'll see is that he'll give up, so he'll give up some fly balls there. Yes, I've noticed that. If he can keep those in the park, um, it's good for him. But if, but the more fly balls he gives up, the more, the more it seems like he's, he's probably going to give him a run at some point. So we'll see. I guess he has given up a run.

He just hasn't given up an earned run. Looking back at the numbers. Yeah, I think I don't have it in front of me. I want to say his ground ball rate was like 20% or something when I looked. The other day, he's definitely a heavy flyball pitcher, but it is certainly worked out for him so far. The Diamondbacks are lucky in that they don't have to face, Shoda I'm in this series, with how things line up. They also don't have to face Javier Assad.

I look through the game logs. So the Cubs are five and one when one of those two guys pitches. So I guess the Diamondbacks kind of luck out in this situation. Looking at the pitching matchups for this series, we have Ben Brown against Merrill Kelly tonight in the opener. Then we have Kyle Hendricks against Tommy Henry in game two, Jordan Wicks and Brandon fought in game three. Tell me about Ben Brown.

Top pitching prospect for the Cubs. He's like six foot six. Looks like it's pretty much just a two pitch mix, but he's had like some pretty good. I don't think he's given up a run in like his last eight and two thirds innings or something like that. Yeah, he's his first. Obviously he came up. I've talked about the pitching stuff, the pitching injuries.

So he came up the second day of the second, before the second game of the season. And he made his debut in Texas, you know, against the reigning World Series champions, all that good stuff. And in two innings, like his first inning was really good. second inning couldn't get out of the inning got got roughed up pretty well though so like you feel like you got ERA like that's where a lot of that is coming from yeah the last time's out he's been he's been a lot better you know maybe there's some of that debut nerves and stuff like that so you get those out of the way and he's got you got great stuff he's got a power fastball and he's got a curveball that definitely seems to to fool some hitters and get some bad swings so uh there's a couple

pitches and as for most starting pitchers you definitely hope that he develops more secondary offerings right three four pitches because sure it's tough to get through to become a major league starter and have success with just two pitches i mean Justin steel's done it but like uh it's not it's it's it's definitely harder to do that when you're limited on your uh your arsenal so but he is a he is a a you know young guy rookie coming in here and at this point it's like he's just just doing what he can do with the opportunity he's given. I think, you know, Tyone is due. He's probably coming back to the Cubs this week off the injured list.

Okay. And Ben Brown, maybe the guy that ends up going either to the bullpener back down to AAA when the time comes to add Tyone back to the roster. So I do think he's looking at it's like, I want to be here and I'm going to do my best with the opportunity I'm given. But I was also like maybe didn't expect to be up so soon. is just happy to be here right now showing what he can do. Are there alarm bells about Kyle Hendricks right now?

I know it's been a pretty, pretty rough start for him in ERA around 12, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, there's definitely alarm bells. I don't think it's a panic button situation yet. Sure. After he got roughed up in San Diego last week, we talked about on the show. And, you know, a lot of people out there saying, like, Kyle Hendricks is washed, get him off a team. put the bullpen, that kind of stuff. And it's kind of like a, you know what?

Like, I'd get it if Kyle Hendricks didn't have the season he had last year. He wasn't an ace level, wasn't a young level, but a very solid season, a guy you're comfortable having in the middle of a rotation last year. That's what he was last year, especially after coming back from almost 11 months on the shelf, recovering from or just rehabbing a shoulder injury. It was a long time off. He didn't know what to expect out of him coming back into the season last season. And then end of May he returned, doesn't hit the injured list again, makes all his starts.

And then is pretty consistently good, pretty consistently stabilizing the rotation. So he had that season. We saw he still had that in him. And you come into this season, yes, he hasn't looked good. He looked pretty bad. Like, you know, 12-something ERA, as you mentioned, and three stars just hasn't. And, you know, his first start of the year was really bad. I think the consensus has that just better execution the first time or tooth of the order.

His last two starts has been better, like just better execution, though the third time to the order is kind of when things fall off. So, Kyle Hendricks is a guy that, in my opinion, it's not time to give up on him yet. I don't know how much longer the leash is and I don't know what you do with him after that if he doesn't end up sticking in the rotation but this is the last year of his contract right? Yeah, so yeah, you got an option after this season

or after the last season, comes picked it up over the winter. So they don't have a longer term contract in place. Yeah, this is the last term of his deal. They have talked before about wanting to, you know, keep them around for a while. But right now it doesn't. doesn't seem like it's going well in the earning contract department.

But like that was saying, he's a guy that has pitched here for a long time, has pitched very well for a long time. And especially after putting together the year he had last year, 374 ERA, 2.8 more. Yeah, you could do a lot worse than that. So like I said, as far as if he can get close to that level again consistently, I think you take that especially if you're talking about a middle to back end starter. And, yeah, again, I don't know how long the leash is, especially Craig Counsel's a new manager.

He hasn't had that relationship with Kyle. But I do think there's still some, there still should be some leash for a guy who's kind of earned it in my mind. I feel like he's one of the more underrated pitchers in the game, at least has been over the last decade or so. I mean, he's pitched in 250 games in his career pretty much all starting, 249 starts, and he has a 356 ERA. I feel like Kyle Hendricks has kind of fallen under the radar in a lot of ways. And he's not, I mean, he's never really relied much on velocity to begin with. So he's always kind of figured to be someone who could probably do it for a long time.

But yeah, he's pitching game two against Tommy Henry. I do want to flip over to the offense now because apparently Michael Bush, just homers every single game. This is a really interesting trade to trade. I found really interesting over the offseason. The Cubs made a deal with the Dodgers, which you always feel like you're waiting into dangerous territory when you do that. But so far, it seems to have worked out pretty well for the Cubs.

I mean, Michael Bush has stepped in as the everyday first baseman. And it seems like he's been everything that the Cubs could have really hoped for. Yeah, no, it's definitely early in the early going here. I know the first, you know, four or five games, his first four or five games, games, the results didn't really manifest themselves. And there wasn't as much freak out from fans. There's definitely a little bit. They're like, oh, my gosh, I can't get it, whatever it is.

It doesn't take long in Chicago for people to start freaking out. Definitely not in the north side. I'll tell you that much. No, but he, yes, the last 10 or so games, he's completely turned it on. He is, well, you mentioned the home runs. That's four games now, four consecutive games so far, going on. Yeah, okay, he's on four consecutive games right now with a home run,

at least one home run. It's like the 30th time in Cubs history that's happened. The record is five and like guys like Sammy Sosa and Christopher Morel are share that record. So Ryan Sandberg, I need to include Ryan Sandberg again, Hav Wilson, who's the other guy that has five? Let me just, it's only four names. Let me just name them all.

But yeah, so he, if he can Homer today, That gives him five. It ties the franchise record with some pretty elite company in franchise history. But you look at like his baseball savant page is all red for the most part. Like there's a few things that aren't, but it's a lot in the red. So you see the contact qualities off the charts. You see his expected stats are off the charts. Like it's all really good.

And then obviously you just see it. You look at the eye test, right? You listen to what Craig Counsel and his teammates talk about the plate approach, the ability to the ability and willingness to take pitches he's seeing like half a pitch more than league average something like that per at bet or per plate appearance um willing to take a walk he's willing to work a count wait for his pitch he knows the strikes on very well like you hear all that you see all that when you watch him hit and you know the last 10 games the numbers have backed it up i think he's at a 184 w rc plus going into monday right like he's that'll play it's better

than Shoahe Otani at this point in the season. It's like 16th and 15th and baseball tied with Yordon Alvarez so far. So, yeah, it's very early. And I actually wrote about it in a newsletter today that just is he the Cubs first basin of the future? It remains to be seen. It's 15 or, yeah, 15 games into the season. It's a, he's got a long way to go before he can, you can say that. You can establish himself as that.

You can't establish yourself that early. But offensively at least. And defensively, he's been fine. Like, it's not like he's earning gold gloves out there, but he's not making a bunch of mistakes either. So, but yeah, offensively, the guy is on a tear. He's locked in and he's been, you know, he's been hard to slow down so far the last 10 games.

Last thing, just the Cubs off season as a whole. I found myself maybe, I don't know if underwhelmed is the right word necessarily. I mean, with how good Shoda Imanaga has been. I mean, I guess there's a world in which the Cubs, signed the best pitcher over the offseason and only paid like $53 million or whatever it was guaranteed. And in order to do it, I mean, it's hard to knock a move like that. But, you know, they lose Stroman. They sort of replace him with Imanaga.

I know the Bush move has certainly worked out pretty well so far. They brought back Cody Bellinger, which is something it kind of felt like they had to do. They ultimately did do that. But he is not started especially well. It kind of seems to me, Ryan, like more or less the Cubs are kind of running it back. And knowing fans in Chicago, I imagine that people were not too happy about that. Yeah, no, especially when you went three months about in between the Craig council hiring and signing your first, or making your first major league addition, which I think

was. The timing did not help. Yeah. Yeah. I believe that was Michael Bush and Yancea O'Mante. That's right from the Dodgers. So it was a long time without adding to the roster. No, I don't disagree with you.

It was, right? They could have gone out and made bigger signings. They could have gone out and made trades or whatever it was, bigger trades. Because there were some bigger names, right? Like Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell and Matt Shab and a bunch of those guys were on the free agent market until the last few weeks, really. Like, they all could have been Cubs. Well, not all of them, but like, you know, a couple other ones could have been Cubs at this point.

So, you know, in a sense it was underwhelming, but I think that's relative to like what they could have done. because they were a good team last year. They probably should have made the playoffs. You mentioned the Diamondback series in September. Like any of those games flipped the other way and the Cubs are in the playoffs and who knows what happens when they get there. So again, they could have and maybe they should have done a little bit more as far as adding

to the roster. But, you know, the team is working with budgets that they're given. The idea that they want to have space open to make trade dead. line additions, all that kind of stuff. Sure. And so they went with what they went. But as far as you mentioned running it back, and it is,

it is because you are, you have mostly the same lineup. I think it might be almost the entire same lineup except for first base. Right. You have mostly the same rotation, mostly the same bullpen.

But when you do have this season, what the Cubs have this season is a lot of prospect capital that's ready to come up. You mentioned Ben Brown earlier. He's already up, right? Like, Pete Carr Armstrong made his debut at the end of September. There's a bunch of guys who, you know, Owen Casey could force his way to the major leagues.

He's been talked about having some of the best raw power just in baseball, right? So you have guys who at the minor league level are, their top prospects are starting to kind of percolate at the AAA level or they're ready to graduate from AAA, whatever it is. and they could be impacting this roster sooner than later, whereas last year you didn't really have that and definitely didn't really have that until September when a guy like Jordan Wicks came up. I think it was end August when he came up and joined that rotation, but like you didn't have that and now you do.

So yes, is it a lot of the same, mostly the same major league roster? Yes, but you do have guys who are ready to come up and impact and supplement the roster in ways that, you know, they didn't have that kind of depth or impact from the minor leagues or just their marginal players, the marginal players on the roster last year. Is that the best way to go about it,

relying on rookies and young players to come up and contribute in some way to share your team? Maybe not. Maybe adding a couple other proven veteran players gives this team just a little bit more of a feel of like a ready to make the playoffs and make a run type team. But, you know, they worked with what they had to work with.

They made the additions. They filled out, you know, they're getting creative with a guy like Christopher Morrell trying to get in the stick at third base. Doing what they had to do with the budget that they had and, and the, you know, the financial flexibility and stuff that they want to have in the future. So this is the route they took. And so far, it's worked out. And we'll see if it works out the rest of the 147 games or whatever it is.

Yeah, I guess we have a bit. longer to go than how far we've, how far we've, we've, we've come so far. But yeah, nine and six Cubs against the eight and eight diamond backs. Pitching matchups are, uh,

interesting. I guess Merrill Kelly, uh, has been very good, has been very good for the diamond backs over the last few years. So you feel like they on paper have the advantage against the young Ben Brown today. Kyle Hendricks and Tommy Henry,

both of those guys, uh, somewhat somewhat wildcards. Maybe Tommy Henry is enough to, to a great start either for the diamond backs. Brandon Foddus. struggled a little bit here in the early going against Jordan Wicks, who I know has also had his struggles here in the early part of the season, although I still think he's going to be a pretty

good pitcher when all is said and done. So, Ryan, I guess we'll see what happens. I was going to say, Brandon Fott, real quick, you said he struggled a little bit, but I don't remember which start it was, but I'm in an 18 fantasy family league. And I was playing my dad, who just doesn't really even look at it. I think he just joined the league to get the numbers set. And I just took his phone on the day. I'm like, I'm going to help you out. Even though I was playing with him, I'm like, I'm going to help you out and make some moves. I picked up Brandon Fott and started him for him that day.

And I think he'd feel like seven shot out or whatever it was. And I'm like, oh, great. I picked the wrong time to add Brandon Fought to my opponent's team. But, yeah, thanks for having me, Jesse. It's been great. Always fun catching out with you. All righty. Well, D-backs, Cubs.

We'll see what happens over the next few days. days. Everyone, thanks for tuning in.