PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ep. 13: Surging D-backs are Suddenly Back in the Race

Episode Date: September 8, 2019

On the heels of a five-game winning streak, Jesse flies solo in this special last-minute edition of The Rattle Podcast. He talks about a few players who have stood out in the D-backs' surge and answer a bunch of listener questions. 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.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a special emergency edition of the Rattle Podcast. As always, I'm your host, Jesse Friedman. Good to have you with us here on this Saturday night. I will start this show, folks, by going ahead and being up front and telling you all that I had no intentions of recording a podcast tonight when I woke up this morning. Me and Jeff, my co-hosts, of course, we had no intentions of doing a show tonight. yet here I am because this Diamondbacks team continues to turn heads and continues to be, as of right now, the hottest team in baseball. You look around the league right now.

There are certainly some teams that are hot in the game of baseball as of right now, but the Diamondbacks, I think, are probably foremost on that list. They have won 11 of their last 12 games. The only game that they lost over those last 12 that they've played, folks, is on Sunday, which is a week ago tomorrow as I record this, against the Los Angeles Dodgers in L.A. and that was a game that the Diamondbacks potentially had in their grasp. They were up by one run going to the ninth inning.

Unfortunately, they gave up the tying run and then would go on to lose the game four to three in extra innings. But regardless, what this team has managed to do over the last couple weeks is extremely, extremely impressive. And I honestly, folks cannot stress that enough, because if you've tuned into the rattle recently, me and Jeff have talked a lot, a lot. This has been like the overarching storyline

of our last few shows, has been, this team is the model of mediocrity, right? This team is stuck in the middle, and if they're not careful, it's potentially possible they could stay there for a year or two. That was the conversation that me and Jeff were having just slightly over a week ago when this current streak was kind of just in its infancy and hadn't really turned into anything yet. But the Diamondbacks have gone on this crazy run thanks to some crazy performances. And before I get into answering all of the many questions that were submitted for this show, that's the main point of this show.

I'll get to that in a moment. but before we get there, I just want to talk about a few different names that have certainly stuck out to me over the last couple weeks that have played an integral part in the Diamondbacks getting into the position that they're in. And the first name I want to bring up is probably the most obvious one. And that's Catele Marte. Cotel Marte has gone in his journey as a player on the Diamondbacks to being a good player, a phenomenal asset to have on your. team. He's young, he's controllable, he's affordable, and he was well above average and versatile. Catelle Marte at the start of this year was already a very good player to have on your team. And what he's done over the last couple of weeks, and not only the last couple of weeks, obviously,

this is nothing new particularly for Cotel Marte, but he has really turned it on over the last couple of weeks for the Diamondbacks. And you look at his numbers for the season, I'm not going to come out and say that he's your MVP for the National League. I still think it's probably going to be Yelotr Bellinger when it's all said and done. I think we might talk about that more later. But Citeau-Marté has been enormously valuable for the Diamondbacks. He is currently hitting above 330 as we speak, which has not been done, by the way, since Luis Gonzalez did that. I believe back in 1999 was the last time the Diamondbacks had a player who hit 330 or above. and Catel Marte, as we speak right now, is sitting at 331.

That's a really impressive number. And obviously, you know, batting average in this day and age, it is not everything, it is not the end-all, be-all of a statistic. But Gatel-Marte leads the National League and hits, and it has been unbelievable to watch. He's the center of this team in what's happening right now. But let's go ahead and move beyond that to, I think, some names that may surprise some people, especially this first one.

The first guy I want to bring up is Kevin Ginkle. Kevin Ginkle is by no means a household name, even among the most diehard of Diamondbacks fans. Heck, you might not really know who I'm talking about if you haven't watched a whole lot of the Diamondbacks games lately. But Kevin Ginkle is or was kind of a bit of a fringy prospect that the Diamondbacks had coming up through their minor league system. This year he spent time both,

in AA and AAA, 14 games with Jackson, the Jackson Generals in AA, then he was moved up to AAA. And over the course of 29 games out of the bullpen and more than 33 innings pitched, he gave up just seven earned runs in his time in the minor leagues.

His opponent batting average was right around a buck 60. So Kevin Ginkle was extremely good in the minor leagues. And, you know, Jackson is relative, a relatively neutral hitting environment. But Reno, if you're putting up good numbers in Reno, as we've talked about on the show many times, that is certainly notable.

And Kevin Ginkle has come onto this Diamondbacks team joining from AAA, a guy who was in AA just a few months ago, and he has been absolutely phenomenal for this Diamondbacks team this year. You look at his numbers since being called up. He's a rookie, 2-0 with a 1.56 ERA, He has 20 strikeouts over 17 into third innings, a whip of 0.92. And you want to talk about the future of this team. You know, forget this wildcard race.

I think Kevin Ginkle could be probably not the next Diamondbacks closer, you know, like elite closer. I don't know if he's quite to that level. But there were people who thought that he could be a legitimate setup man in this league. and I think based on what we've seen this year, I think that is totally possible. He's 25 years old. He's a little bit of a late bloomer

coming out of the University of Arizona, but this is absolutely a guy to keep in mind not only for this season and the stretch run for the Diamondbacks, but going on into next year. The list after that, I'm just going to go ahead and read something that I tweeted earlier today, which honestly got a whole lot more engagement that I was expecting it to.

We're sitting at 55 retweets and 380 likes as of this particular moment. So apparently this hit home with a lot of people, but this is all I said. I said all of this has happened in the last turn of the Diamondbacks rotation. Get ready for this. Merrill Kelly, his last turn. Seven innings, three hits, no runs, two walks, nine strikeouts. Zach Gallin in the finale against the Padres,

seven innings one hit, no runs, one walk, eight, strikeouts. Alex Young today, eight innings, two hits, no runs, one walk, 12 strikeouts. Those are unbelievable numbers. And what's maybe even more notable is that all three of those guys are rookies. We forget that about this team. The Diamondbacks right now are rolling out there with a 60% rookie lead starting rotation.

Merrill Kelly, Zach Gallen, and Alex Young. And Merrill Kelly obviously is. had his struggles. That start was really good to see, especially for him, a guy who at one point kind of sounded like from Toro Lavello that maybe he was about to have his last start, or it already had his last start. But Merrill Kelly really, really delivered in his outing against the Padre. Zach Gallen continues to deliver seven innings, only one hit allowed. He flirted with a no-hitter in that game. Alex Young today in the game flirted with a no-hitter, which he had through four innings. The only hits he would allow over his eight innings of work altogether were both

in-field singles. So you want to talk about the rookies stepping up. And that's kind of the storyline with this team for me. It's not, you know, it's not that the Diamondbacks are about to go win the World Series. Because if I came on here and told you all that, I would feel bad because I think I would be lying. I don't know if the Diamondbacks necessarily have a roster that's really built to go deep into the playoffs. But nonetheless, from a, from a fans perspective, and normally we don't speak to this perspective horribly often on the rattle. We try to keep things, you know, more professional, more objective. But for all of you as fans, this is what people love to watch, right? This is what people love to see. A team that is not necessarily on paper built to do anything special,

but a team that nonetheless rises to the occasion and somehow feeding off of each other, they have managed to rattle off 11 of their last 12 victories in this season. This has been unbelievable to watch. And with that, folks, let's go ahead and jump in to the many questions that were submitted for this show. I really, really appreciate all of the engagement. Hopefully we have enough time to get to all of them.

but all right here we go folks we're going to go ahead and start out with chad froslin chad says can you explain why or what has finally clicked we've been plus 80 run differential all season yet couldn't shake 500 for no good reason seems like we should have a we should have been a comfortable wild card number one spot if baseball was logical well chad i think that's a phenomenal point I fully agree with you. It's a puzzling situation because the Diamondbacks, let's face it, not much has changed. You know, you look up and down the roster

and the box scores from each of these games, and it doesn't seem like on paper a whole lot has changed other than, you know, those last three outings that the Diamondbacks have had the last turn through the rotation have been incredible. But altogether, it seems like the Diamondbacks just kind of figured out how to win, close games.

Right? You mentioned that the run differential has been relatively consistent. As of right now, they're at plus 83. They've been hovering right around 70 to 80 for it feels like a couple of months. And it's a great point, Chad, that suddenly, for whatever reason, the diamond backs seem to have figured something out. And I believe it was AZ Snake Pit that pointed out that the diamond backs have won nine of their last 10 games determined by two runs or less.

And people forget just how big of a difference that can make because you're only going to score so many runs in a season and you can only be so good at preventing runs over the course of a season. But how you distribute all of those runs over the 162 games determines a lot. And the Diamondbacks traditionally, at least for the majority of this season have not done so particularly well there were a lot of times where they would win a game you know win big lose small their run differential would be really good it seemed to be deceptively

high for much of the year and yet the record would still hover right around 500 and for a while we had kind of determined that's what the diamond backs truly were right like that's that's who they are as a team and and yeah to answer your question chat i am i am also confused uh but i think you know these are you kind of think of it from the perspective of the law of averages. These are the kinds of things that generally balance themselves out. You know, if you're playing plus 80 baseball, you're probably, you know, you're a better than 500 team, at least by that standard. And these things generally have a way of working themselves out.

I think more specifically, I think the Diamondbacks bullpen has really performed well in high-leverage situations. That's another thing I would throw in there. you've seen, you know, Archie Bradley, even, you know, he's a great example of this because his last few times out there closing games, he has not been particularly good. And it seems like it's always a roller coaster ride whenever he's out there. But he's gotten the job done, right? He's gotten the save.

And that's ultimately what matters at the end of the day. And the diamondbacks for whatever reason, Chad, I'm with you. Suddenly they found a way in those high leverage key moments in those key moment situations. in a baseball game. Somehow, some way, they're suddenly performing a lot better than they were before. Let's go to David Coffey, who asks, if the Diamondbacks make the playoffs after selling Zach Ranky and storming back to relevancy, will the team decide to try and go for all, or to go all in, excuse me, for next year? That's a great question from David. Thank you, David, for submitting that to the show.

I don't think the Diamondbacks will go all in, but I think it depends on what you mean by All In. I don't think the Diamondbacks are going to spend big over the winter because frankly I don't think they have a whole lot of money to spend. Zach Granky getting out from that contract certainly helps some things, but Yasmani Tomas, his salary continues to climb. He'll make almost $20 million next year. Diamondbacks certainly are in a better financial position moving forward,

but I still don't think they're necessarily in the green to go and spend big. And frankly, if you look at the free agent options out there, you know, unless you're going out there and getting Garrett Cole, there aren't a whole lot of, you know, premier second tier options that would be more in the Diamondbacks price range. So I really don't think the Diamondbacks are going to go all in for next year, if I'm being honest, David. I don't think that's what they will do, and I also don't really think it's what they should do.

The Diamondbacks have played really well over the last couple of weeks, but we have to remember this team is playing 528 baseball. That's their win percentage, and 75 and 67 sounds good. You know, eight games over 500, it is good, but the Diamondbacks barely win more than they lose. And you think about that from a long-term perspective with, you know, several. guys becoming free agents at the end of next year. I don't know if this is necessarily the time for the diamondbacks to cash in all their chips. Now that Goldsmith isn't here, now the Granky isn't here.

I don't think the Diamondbacks are going to win a World Series next season. And so although I think the bullpen will get rebuilt, I think they will certainly do some Mike Hazen-esque things to try to put themselves in better position to contend, I think, yeah, that is absolutely possible. but I would be hesitant, David, to use the word all in. And that's where I'll leave my answer on that one. Let's go ahead and go to Justin McDiarmont, who says, who among the September call-ups would make a postseason roster?

Well, we'll go ahead and start it at least by just answering the question, who of the diamondbacks called up. So here's a list. Outfielder Abraham Almonte called up from the Reno Aces. He got a big pitch and pinch hit opportunity with the bases loaded in the ninth inning of the game today, unfortunately struck out. John DuPontier from the Reno Aces was also called up the lefty Robbie Scott, first baseman Kevin Crone, catcher Caleb Joseph, reliever Stefan Kreiton, also reliever Jimmy Sherphy.

And then lastly, they also called up their second baseman Domingo Laba. It's a very good question. once again, I think from that list, to be honest, I'm not really sure if there's a place for many of these guys. And I think the reason that we can probably be sure of that is that they weren't called up before September 1st. You know, for the guys who are called up on September 1st or slightly after September 1st, usually there's a reason they were, you know, with the minors instead of with the major league club. And so I think for most of these guys,

you don't really have space to keep them on your playoff roster. But I will say, I think there are a few interesting cases. I think Jimmy Shurphy is probably my best bet, I would say, to make a playoff roster should the Diamondbacks get there, especially with what he did today in the game, getting two big strikeouts, came in first and second, one out in the bottom of the ninth,

two big strikeouts from Jimmy Shurphy to end the game. That was really good to see. And I think if I had to guess, I would say Jimmy Shurphy is the most likely candidate of all these guys to make that roster. Other than him, it's a little bit, it's a little difficult to say. Stefan Kreiton has been good, solid for the Diamondbacks, a 457 ERA. 106 whip is pretty good. Posing batting average for him is only at 2.13. team, the OPS against is 634, which is quite good.

So I think Stefan Kreiton could certainly get a look. The Diamondbacks bullpen, I think, is really the most wide open part of their team moving forward. And even, I think these next few weeks are also going to determine if the Diamondbacks did make the playoffs. In fact, I think these next few weeks would be important in figuring out, you know, who's got which role and who are the guys who have roles and who are the guys that don't. I think there are very few things that are for sure in that diamondbacks bullpen over these last few weeks.

So I think Crichton by no means a lot, but could potentially get a look. Caleb Joseph, probably not. The diamond backs already have with Alex Avila and with Carson Kelly. You think they would probably be set at catcher there. Tori Lavello, of course, has generally been pretty fond of carrying a third catcher, but I don't know if that would really be necessary in the playoffs when there are more off days. and, you know, less of a need to try to keep catchers fresh. Moving on from that, I think those are probably my two most likely guys

are Crichton and Shurfi. Beyond that, John DuPontier, if you'd ask me a few months ago, I think I would say, oh, of course. You know, if he's healthy at the end of the year, they would take him into the playoffs. But he's really struggled lately. He was not particularly good in AAA to end this season. And the injury bug seems to have gotten to him.

the control is all over the place. He is actually in his most recent stint with the Major League Club. He's appeared with the team on September 2nd and on August 15th. Those are his last two. And he has walked a total of six batters over his last two and two-thirds innings with the Major League Club. So John DuPlante, I think it's possible. He certainly, you know, he has a decent backbone and track record behind him.

but I also would be a little hesitant to really supplant him firmly in that conversation. Abraham Almonte, the final guy, probably not. They haven't used him a horribly lot yet, three for seven so far at the big league level since being called up. He has some major league experience, a little over 350 games altogether for his career. So, you know, maybe there's something there in having some more experience off the bench come to post. season. But my guess is he probably would not be included. So you're probably looking at Jimmy Scherfeet and Stefan Crichton as far as that's

concerned. Let's go ahead and just to McDermott had a second question. If we end up not making the playoffs but are about where we are now, one to two games behind, what does that do to our draft positioning? I believe in Major League Baseball, draft positioning is simply the reverse of the league standings at the end of the year. So as far as draft positioning is concerned, every team the Diamondbacks leap over, they would fall back in the draft by one position.

At this point, I don't think, you know, I don't think there's necessarily reason to be too concerned about that. The Diamondbacks obviously are not going to have, you know, a top five pick at this point. And once you get, you know, beyond the top five or the top ten, you know, generally speaking, it's not you know you're not going to be in a drastically different position if you're picking at number 12 as opposed to number 10 or anything like that so definitely a situation to monitor but probably not anything the diamondbacks would be too concerned about um let's go ahead and move on to another question matt cashin says what kind of month gets catalmarte the MVP uh it's a good it's a good question matt it's an intriguing one you know you have to figure that if he continues to produce at the pace that he is right now, there has to be a, you know, there has to be a tipping point where maybe this could tip in his favor. But I will say the numbers for Cotel

Marte are still not particularly kind. I think there's, there's maybe an argument for him for second place. I think that's possible. But whether Cotel Marte could legitimately supplant himself into the top of the N.O. Wildcard race, I think would be quite difficult. I'll go ahead and pull up the Wins Above Replacement Leaderboard. Obviously, that's pretty much the stat that, you know, people who vote for the MVP are looking at the most. Ketel Marte is not as far behind as you might think. Cody Bellinger is at 7.3. Christian Yelich at 7.2.

Ketel Marte is at 6.8. So as of right now, that's the situation. I think it's definitely possible for the people out there who like HomeRour runs, it'll be tough for him because Bellinger and Yelich right now are sitting at 44 apiece, Coteau down at 31. But he's a very versatile player, and he offers things to the game that Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich do not. Ketel Marte is the only guy out of that bunch that can play the middle infield extremely well

and also play the outfield extremely well. So it's possible, but you're talking about quite a tear, I think, if I'm being honest, to answer your question, Matt, to get Catelle Marte into first place in that race. But nonetheless, it will absolutely be fun to watch him down the stretch. Let's go ahead and move on to another question that we have from at ZM Sportsball. He says, what role, if any, do you see Luke Weaver playing during, excuse me, this stretch run? It's a very good question. Luke Weaver is a guy that we haven't heard a whole lot about.

about all that recently. And we have heard little updates here and there, I believe. It was reported just a few days ago that he threw a simulated game, which went well. So it's definitely something to monitor. My personal take is that I would be pretty surprised if the Diamondbacks used Luke Weaver down the stretch, just given, you know, the nature of his injury. I think I especially would have said that a couple of weeks ago, but things have changed a little bit with this team.

They're sitting a game and a half out of the wild card position, and that puts them clearly within striking distance, and Luke Weaver was extremely good early this season for the Diamondbacks, getting him back. He would certainly, I guess to answer your question, you did ask what role would he play if he were to be with the Diamondbacks? diamond backs, and I think that would certainly be out of the bullpen. I believe Tori Lavello said something about that earlier in the year that if he did come back,

it would be as a bullpen piece. I don't think they're going to use him to start games. But nonetheless, you know, the diamond backs, as I mentioned, the bullpen is kind of in flux right now. They could use some more arms down there, and if they feel the Luke Weaver is in good enough position to do that, I think it's certainly possible they would look to him to give them a few innings out of the bullpen every now and then down the stretch. Sam Gregory gives us a question that I think is crucial to this entire situation. He says, what's the realistic amount of wins slash record needed the rest of the way to make the playoffs? Lots of good competition with the other teams in the race,

but the debacks have a very favorable schedule the rest of the way. And favorable is an important word here because the diamondbacks indeed have one of the easiest schedules in the game of baseball to close out the year. They've got one more with the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday, September 8th. After that, it's four against the Mets on the road. And then the diamondbacks are at home for the rest of the year, except for a weekend series with the Padres from the 20th to the 22nd. So it goes Cincinnati at home again, Miami at home, at the Padres, at home against the Cardinals, and then at home against the Padres to finish the season. And frankly, if you had to draw up something like what you would want the Diamondback

schedule to be like down the stretch of a playoff run, that's something like what you'd want. Finishing the year with three at home against the San Diego Padres, I think that's favorable if things go down to the wire, which they likely will from what we can tell right now. Cincinnati, the team of Diamondbacks, have beat over the last couple of games. They're okay. They're a mediocre team. They're under 500 by 11 games as we speak. Then they play the Marlins after that.

The Marlins are the worst team in the National League. And the second, or excuse me, the third worst team in all of baseball, Baltimore and Detroit, take those honors. but yes, absolutely the Marlins are a team the Diamondbacks should beat up on, although that's also what we thought about a month or two ago, and the Diamondbacks had a seven-game stretch against the Baltimore Orioles and the Miami Marlins, who I believe were the two worst teams than the game at the time. And the Diamondbacks did not play well.

They lost three out of four to the Miami Marlins at home earlier this season. So this is, you know, by no means what I call those wins right away, but the Diamondbacks certainly should be able to take care of business. business at San Diego over the weekend of the 20th to the 22nd and then as I mentioned the St. Louis Cardinals are in town from the 23rd to the 25th. That right there, folks, that's the only above 500 team that the Diamondbacks play from here on out is the St. Louis Cardinals from the 23rd to the 25th. And the Diamondbacks unfortunately do not have a particularly good history with the Cardinals. It seems like year after year after year, the Diamondbacks do not seem to play

particularly well against St. Louis, but that's only three games out of a total of 20 from here on out. Diamondbacks have 20 games to decide their fate. And with that, I want to also go to the Chicago Cubs schedule because I think it's very interesting to kind of compare notes here. The Cubs schedule is not difficult. It's not easy. It's not as easy as the Diamondbacks,

but I saw a few people say the Cubs have a really difficult schedule from here and out, and that's really just not true. They play the Brewers one more time on Sunday, of course, and it's four against the Padres in San Diego. They have the Pirates and Reds at home for a combined six games. The Pirates are 62 and 80. The Reds are 66 and 77. So neither of those teams, of course, are particularly threatening for them.

Cardinals they have for four in town over the weekend, and then they've got the pirates on the road and the Cardinals on the road to finish the year. So really the Cubs schedule is very, very similar to the Diamondback schedule, except tomorrow, Sunday. They're facing the Brewers instead of the Reds, which of course the Brewers are the better team there. And then the Diamondbacks have two series against the Cardinals and the, or excuse me, the Cubs have two series against the Cardinals. the Diamondbacks only have one, and the other teams are all below 500. So it's not a significant difference between the Cubs schedule and the Diamondback schedule. But when you're talking about a game and a half, obviously even that small difference of, you know, one more series for the Cubs against an above 500 team, a pretty good above 500 team in the St. Louis Cardinals.

That could certainly make a difference. And the nationals also, people forget the nationals have also kind of struggled a little bit as of late. Obviously, on the whole, they have been very, very good for the last, you know, since the middle of May, I believe they have one of the best records, if not the best record in all of baseball. But their nationals are in a funk right now. They've lost four consecutive games, and their lead over the Cubs is now just two games. Their lead over the Diamondbacks is now just three and a half games.

So the nationals are not necessarily totally safe in this either. and with that, I think we should probably check out the national schedule as well. So I'm going to go ahead and jump into that. Let's see what the nationals have moving forward for the rest of the season. They will go ahead and finish their series with the Atlanta Braves tomorrow, Sunday. And their schedule through the end of the year is probably the most difficult out of the three teams of the Cubs and the Diamondbacks and the Nationals. because after Atlanta, they will travel to Minnesota to face the Minnesota twins who have firmly supplanted themselves in the first place position in the AL Central.

The twins are playing 620 baseball. They're 88 and 54. That's one of the best teams in the game right there. They're at the twins for three. Then they come back home to face the Braves for three. Another very good team. Then they're at the Cardinals for three. after that it's the Marlins.

They get a little bit of a break over the weekend from the 20th to the 22nd. They've got a five-game series with the Phillies from the 23rd to the 26. I believe they had a postponement back in June that they're making up there on the 24. So that's a five-game series over four days with the Phillies at home. And then they finish the year against the Cleveland Indians, a very good team, of course, from the AL Central. and they'll face them at home to conclude the year. So to be honest, folks, the nationals are really not safe in this.

With their four consecutive losses, they have made this race a whole lot more interesting. And I think we should probably also mention the Brewers, after their last couple of wins against the Cubs, they've put themselves in an interesting position as well. They're 73 and 68, just a game and a half behind the Diamondbacks, three games behind the Cubs. And the Phillies are also right there three games out. The Mets are four games out. So the Mets are maybe four games to make up over 20 games to end the season

and to hop over three teams to get there. The Phillies or the Mets, excuse me, they certainly have a long road ahead of them to make the playoffs. But this is still probably a six-team race between the nationals, the Cubs, the Diamondbacks, the Brewers. and the Phillies and the Mets. But among the three that are at the top, the Nationals, the Cubs, and the Diamondbacks,

once again, I think it's certainly the Diamondbacks with the easiest schedule, the Cubs with the second easiest, and the nationals have the most difficult schedule moving forward, which will be very interesting to see how that plays out. Let's go to Garrett on Twitter, who says, with the breakout and possibly MVP-Calibur season of Cate, Eduardo Escobar somehow putting up career numbers and our rookies stepping up to fill big holes, Rojas, Gallin, and Young, and Weaver and Taiwan Walker expected to return soon.

It looks like the debats are somehow better off than the start of the season. It looks like the Diamondbacks competitive window has opened a lot sooner than expected. What do the debacks have to do to meet these high expectations and will Marte's production be viable in the long run? very good question Garrett I think it's an important question for the diamond backs obviously is they plan for the future which is something me and Jeff have dug into

quite a bit over the last few weeks trying to figure out what this team has in store for the next few years and when the next real contention window will open up to be honest with everyone I don't want to you know the diamondbacks are obviously a fun team to watch right now. They're doing a lot of good things. They've made this race very

interesting. All of those things are worthy of applause. But as I kind of alluded to earlier, what makes this so incredible is that the Diamondbacks have no business being where they are. You look at this team on paper without Goldstein, without Goldstein, without Goltson, without Prolach, without Zach Granke as of the trade deadline. On paper, this is not a team that should be, you know, a game and a half behind the Chicago Cubs who just won a World Series three years ago. Like, the diamond back should not be in this position. And yet they are. And I think it speaks to the resiliency of the players on the team and just how good Mike

Hayzen is at getting the most out of his roster and making a lot of just value moves. that seems to have been a theme for Mike Hazen over his stint as Diamondbacks General Manager. He just seems to do a lot with a little. And all of that is fantastic. But I think we have to be careful that we don't take this to the point of, you know, the Diamondbacks are going to win a World Series next year, or, you know, this is the start of the next contention window. Because, I mean, some of the guys the Diamondbacks are relying on right now, frankly,

are a little bit less than proven. And Garrett alludes to even Catele's production, like is this sustainable in the long run? I think Cotel Marte is a really, really good player. And I don't know if he'll ever hit 3.30 again in his major league career, but I do fully believe that Cotel Marte is a superstar in this league for years to come. And you look at analytics, you look at the stat cast numbers, things of that nature, pretty much all of that can affirm

that Catele-Marté is one of the best players in the game. So I'm not really concerned about Cotel-Marté, but I think some of the supporting cast members on this team, some of which Garrett mentioned, Eduardo Escobar, you know, maybe having a 40-homer season this year, Alex Young, after what he did today, Alex Young, a few weeks ago,

was a somewhat failed relief pitcher in the minor leagues. He was kind of going back and forth between being a starter and a reliever, and it was pretty much decided at one point not too long ago that Alex Young was going to be a reliever in the minor leagues because that was probably his future. And suddenly that narrative is completely shifted around. And so as much as it's incredible what Alex Young has done, and I think hopefully at the Rattle.comnet, we're planning to have a piece up soon, kind of digging into Alex Young and maybe some adjustments that he's made or what

exactly he's done to have the success. But we just have to be careful that, you know, that you're not assuming that Alex Young is going to pitch to a 3-3-ERA, you know, for the next six years, or that Zach Gallen is going to pitch to a sub two and a half ERA for the next six years. Or that, you know, Eduardo Escobar is ever going to, you know, set some ridiculous career high in home runs again. You know, these are incredible things that have happened this year. They've been great to watch.

But in the long-term outlook, I think there are still questions. about, you know, whether, you know, is the last two weeks a reason to really shift the Diamondbacks long-term plans around? And I don't think we're quite to that point yet. So, so for those of you who are, you know, running away with, you know, the idea of attending a World Series in 2020 or, you know, at least seeing the Diamondbacks go deep into the playoffs this year or next, I would tap the brakes just a little bit. And not because the Diamondbacks have not done some extraordinary things over the last two weeks or been probably the best watch in the game of baseball

over the last two weeks as well. They have done some phenomenal things. But I think we owe it to ourselves to be careful and to be cautious before making any pronouncements that are too significant about the future. Let's go ahead. We've got a few more questions here to get to. Coming over from the rattle side,

Andrew AJT said, if this team makes the wild card, do you think it will be just a cameo or do you think they could go far in the postseason? Stranger Things have happened. And this is a great point here from Andrew, kind of along the lines of what I was just saying. To be honest, I think the Diamondbacks, if they get into the wild card, I think it will be an amazing spectacle. And we've seen teams who weren't necessarily, you know, the best on paper. we've seen teams like that go deep into the playoffs. But the diamond backs, I'm not sure, are necessarily in a position where I would put any kind of expectation on that whatsoever. I think if the diamond backs do make the playoffs, I think that in its own right is an extraordinary accomplishment to be celebrated.

And heck, as Andrew mentioned, stranger things have happened. You know, this is not the NBA. You know, it's not a game where, you know, the eight seed never ever beats the one seed. You know, the diamondbacks could get hot. They have some pieces on their team that, you know, could get hot at the right time. But, you know, even though this is baseball and anything can happen, it probably wouldn't expect it to. And I think the teams that Diamondbacks would be matched up with in the playoffs, specifically the Los Angeles Dodgers, which, if we're being honest, folks,

as much as we don't want to think about it. If the Diamondbacks get to the Wild Card, win the Wild Card game, they've got the Los Angeles Dodgers, arguably the best team of the National League, maybe the best team in the game, waiting for them in the NLDS. And we saw that a couple years ago,

and it was a rough series for the Diamondbacks. But once again, you never know. And I'll stick with what Andrews said. I think if the Diamondbacks can get in, it'd be an amazing spectacle in itself. You know, don't put any expectations necessarily on them, but you never know in the game of baseball. I think that'll make things very, very fun to watch.

Becca Lower, welcome to the show, Becca, by the way. I heard you haven't tuned in before. Hopefully you're giving us a shot here in this episode. Certainly happy to have you along here with The Rattle. She asks, when will the debacks have a serious discussion about Andrew Chaffin's viability as a closure? He's been so inconsistent while people like Shurphy and Ginkle have stepped up. Yeah, I totally see where you're coming from here, Becca.

I was a little bit puzzled when the Diamondbacks went to Chafin out of the bullpen to start the ninth inning. I thought, you know, if anything, maybe you started with Jimmy Shurfy, who had been warming up. And then, you know, you hope he does his job. And then you've got Joe Evato, the lefty. Maybe you would go to Chafin at that point. But, yeah, you know, I think Andrew Chaffin is, you know, a decent reliever, a solid. a left-handed reliever. He is by no means a relief ace or somebody that, you know,

particularly fits well in a closer job. I fully agree with you there, Becca. And I think with Tori Lavello, something that he seems to put some value on is just the nature of experience and, you know, putting players in their proper roles. We've really never seen Tori Lavello, you know, like make some sort of dramatic. dramatic pronouncement, you know, or put someone who is kind of a reach into a position of power,

if you will, in the bullpen. The Diamondbacks have kind of always played it safe when it came to their bullpen roles. You know, they went with Greg Holland, the guy with the experience for Closer. They've done that over the last few years now, really sticking with those more experienced guys through thick and thin. And I agree with you, Becca, that, you know, experience can be a little bit overstated. And even though Andrew Chafin has that, I'm not sure. if he really should be facing a whole lot of right-handed hitters at all.

But, you know, Jimmy Scherfea and Kevin Ginkle are far from proven. And maybe that's what Tori Lavello is, it kind of has on his mind. But I do agree with you, I think, especially Kevin Ginkle, now that he's had, you know, about 20 innings under his belt in the majors and has done really, really well. Maybe it's, you know, maybe this is a time where you'd see his role balloon a little bit into something more significant. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that's all of the questions. Hopefully we got to everything.

That's all that I have here in this episode. Thank you so much for listening. Sticking with me as I ramble here for about 40 minutes. Just really wanted to capture this moment here for the Diamondbacks community. The last couple weeks have been absolutely exciting 11 out of 12 wins overall for this team. And, you know, moving forward, we talked to. about it in this show, the diamondbacks really have a shot at this, folks. This is not, you know, this is no drill.

The diamond backs really do have a shot. They're a game and a half out after the Brewers walked off on the Cubs here this evening. The Cubs now have lost back-to-back games that are 76 and 65, and the diamondbacks have an easier schedule than both teams ahead of them, absolutely. And this is by no means, you know, a super-duper long shot for the Diamondbacks. I'm inbacks anymore like it felt a few weeks ago. So absolutely be sure to stay engaged with us over the next few weeks as this season comes to an end. You can find us on Twitter at the Rattle AZ.

Be sure to give us a follow there. If you haven't already, my personal Twitter handle is at Jesse N. Friedman. For those of you who miss Jeff Weiser, as I certainly have in this episode, he'll be back with us, hopefully here in just a day or two, as we're planning to do our usual weekly episode with both of us on the air here in just a couple of days. So absolutely be sure to keep a lookout for that as we hopefully get that show out here pretty soon. Thank you once again so much, ladies and gentlemen, for tuning in. My name is Jesse Friedman saying so long.