PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ep. 14: What will newly extended GM Mike Hazen do this off-season?

Episode Date: September 17, 2019

We talk about Mike Hazen's well-deserved extension to remain the D-backs' GM. We also talk about what he might do this offseason in terms of free agents and trades. What weaknesses do the D-backs have and how can they fix them? Also, we talk about some really exciting accomplishments by the farm system. 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 episode 13 of the Rattle podcast. As always, I'm your host Jesse Freedbit along with Jeff Weiser, my co-host. And Jeff, I am partially blaming myself for the Diamondbacks fate over these last nine or ten days. It was just a little bit over a week ago that I did what I called an emergency podcast episode. The Diamondbacks, it pulls you within a game and a half of a playoff spot in the National League wild card race. things have since unraveled. They won the game tonight over the Miami Marlins to salvage some dignity for themselves at the very least.

However, you look at the standings right now, they're sitting five and a half games out of the NL Wildcard. They have dropped seven of their last nine after going on an extended run of playing really good baseball before that. And Jeff, you know, it's an interesting storyline because we've talked pretty much all season long about this team being, you know, kind of the model of mediocrity. back and forth with that phrase. And last week, you know, for the first time, it was like, okay, this team has finally found a way

to get over the hump and to become more than that. And yet here we are, you know, about a week and a half later, and the Diamondbacks find themselves three games over 500. So, you know, they're not, haven't fallen quite back to that middle mark of 500 exactly. But nonetheless, this Diamondbacks team continues to show throughout this season that although they've certainly, you know, maybe played above a lot of people's expectations this year. They are what they are. And unfortunately, Jeff, it looks like that's probably not a playoff-bound team. Yeah, I mean, I know you hold yourself partially accountable. I mean, I personally hold you

wholly accountable. I just blame you, Jeff, because you didn't do the show with me that night because you had company over or something like that. So maybe we'll go that direction instead. Yeah, maybe it's my fault. No, it's been really, it's been really, It's been really frustrating because, you know, I think I had only been one show prior to that that we had just said, you know, if this team could just catch fire and then my goodness, did they ever. I mean, they were blistering hot. I mean, just like nothing could go wrong. Nothing could stop them. And then, you know, it seems like it's just been the complete and total opposite over, you know, the basically the last, you know, calendar week.

So, you know, that that MET series was. excruciating you know downright painful especially the last two games I mean they were outscored 20 to 1 you know over the last two games of that series and then you know they struggled with the Reds who are you know out of the picture

but not necessarily a terrible ball club and so yeah it's uh it's been really you know disheartening in a sense you know and you know we just you know I just waited for that hot streak got it and then you know just as as quickly as I got hot they cooled right back off so you know right back to right back to familiar territory of

of just kind of being stuck in the middle and you know just on the the fringe of the playoff picture you mentioned those two stinkers with the uh with the new york met's out at city field nine nothing on wednesday 11 to 1 on thursday but we were also talking uh you know before before we started recording about the other games in this rough stretch for the diamond backs their pitching staff has actually been quite good. Unfortunately, their extended win streak ended last Sunday on September 8th at the hands of the Cincinnati Rides. A really tough four-three loss there. But, you know, four runs, certainly respectable.

Three runs the next day on Monday against the Mets, they allowed three runs again on Tuesday. And then over the weekend against Cincinnati, they lost two of three, but they only gave up a total of seven runs in that series over three games. this pitching staff, Jeff, has actually hung in there relatively well outside of those two pretty rough ones against the New York Mets at the end of that series. What's really been the issue for the Diamondbacks over this last week has been their offense. And I know we have a question about this that we'll get to in a second, but this offense has just really gone dormant, Jeff, for the Diamondbacks over this last week or so. Christian Walker has really taken a major

step back after really showing some signs of kind of getting over the hump of inconsistency. It seemed like he had really settled as a player, as a pretty good offensive player, who was starting to hit pretty well on a more consistent level, and he has just really fallen off as of late. Adam Jones has certainly had his struggles down the stretch. Even Eduardo Escobar has struggled a little bit still delivering the power numbers, but his batting average has dipped quite a bit as of late as well. And Jeff, I think, you know, for me, this just points to the fact that the Diamondbacks, you know, this isn't some, you know, championship caliber team that is simply slipped as the days have gone on here in the dog days of summer.

This is a team that, you know, is probably playing right about where we expected them to. And this is an offense that certainly has its weapons, especially with Catelle Marte coming on strong. But this offense is on the other hand very far from perfect. And I think we've seen that all too clear over the last week and a half or so. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Jake Lamb, you know, having the kind of season that he's had, and he had a big night tonight against the Marlins. But, you know, it's been a real struggle for him.

And I know he's worked extremely hard and is trying, you know, his best. But, you know, the production just hasn't really been there. Of course, Las Stephen Sousa Jr. before the season even started, David Peralta is now out of that lineup. And that's after you've, you know, subtracted. Paul Goldschmidt and AJ Pollack. So it's, they're just, you know, you kind of look for answers and you start looking around the lineup.

And it's not really clear where you're going to find those answers. I mean, Adam Jones is not the player he once was. You know, he's a tremendous leader for the team and as, you know, by all accounts for his age, had, you know, a fair, you know, a fair season. But they're, you know, relying on guys like him and Gerard Dyson, you know, routinely and, you know, Tim LaCastro with some frequency, you know, it's just, it's probably not quite enough to get it done. And, you know, to your point about Christian Walker, I mean, you know, as soon as it seems like he has, you know, a real firm grasp on first base, and it looks like, you know, maybe he is the guy to kind of man that position for the next few years. Yeah.

You know, you know, then he hits a skin and it's kind of like, well, you know, do you really trust that? I mean, he's had just kind of a hot and cold year all year. He's had stretches where he's been kind of a monster. these had stretches where he's just looked a little bit lost at the plate so um you know still no real answers there and i think first base you know remains sort of a position that that they're going to have to search for kind of a long-term solution to you he's a tremendous defender at first base but um you know first base defense is only so valuable so um yeah you kind of look at like you know where's the answer going to come from you know uh katoe is sure surely doing his part but

You look around and I just I just don't know where the boost is going to come from at this point. Kevin recommends a few topics for us to go over in our show. He mentions offseason moves, upgrades, non-tenders, coaching changes, etc. So Kevin, we're going to do our best to honor that. Get to all of these different topics if we can. Jeff, you mentioned Jake Lamb as a non-tender candidate in the past. I know we've had that conversation before. and you mentioned as well, although he had a pretty darn good day today with four RBI's,

a big base clearing double at one point in the game. All together, this season has really gone about as badly for Jake Lamb as you really could have imagined it going. In my mind, Jeff, I'm pretty sure you agree with this based on earlier conversations. He seems like probably a no-brainer non-tender candidate at this point, considering what he would make in arbitration. Jeff, from your standpoint, who are other guys on this roster who you think could maybe join Jake Lamb on that list of guys who are under contract through next season, but the Diamondbacks would simply choose to nontender them instead? Yeah, I think probably the most likely candidate, you know, is probably a guy like Stephen Sousa. You know, it's not to say they wouldn't perhaps try to bring him back, but at this point, he has missed so much baseball.

and it's really yet to be seen what kind of physical condition that he comes back in. He's a guy that they could definitely consider, you know, consider, you know, rolling the dice with and letting him, you know,

and non-tendering him and making him available to other clubs. And, you know, it doesn't mean they lose interest, but maybe they try to bring him back for a lower figure. It'd be hard to imagine anyone out there really making a strong push for him.

So I really wouldn't be shocked if maybe he's the other guy that they just decide, you know, really not to bring back. You know, you could maybe make that argument about a guy like Matt Andres who's going to hit arbitration for the second time. And, you know, it's probably in line for a salary around, you know, maybe $1.2, $1.3 million. You know, but at the same time, that's a low enough dollar figure that maybe you bring them back just for the length of. the bullpen. So, um, but I do think that Susa and Lamb are probably the two, um, most clear, you know, non-tender candidates. Um, the only other guy that could fall into that, um, into that vote is, uh, Taiwan Walker. Because at this point, we don't know what his, what his health is like. And it's been kind of set back after setback. Um, do they want to spend five million dollars to

bring him back? I mean, the diamondbacks are. going to be working with all of the medical information. So they'll be in a good position to evaluate that. But that's another one that we maybe keep an eye on this winter. In terms of offseason moves and upgrades, Jeff, you and I just a few minutes ago before we started recording at some fun going up and down the list of free agents at the end of this season trying to pinpoint who are the guys that Diamondbacks could show legitimate interested in.

I'll go ahead and tell our audience. I pose the question to Jeff, who's the biggest name the Diamondbacks could show interest in? And Jeff was convinced the Diamondbacks would make a phone call to a Raldus Chapman, whether, or I guess Rolus Chapman's agent, I should say, whether or not the Diamondbacks actually go down that road at all, or whether they make a second phone call to a Roldis Chapman's agent is a completely different question. But I do think they will be in the market for some bullpen help. That's probably going to be the number one thing they're looking for.

over the offseason from my standpoint. Jeff, I know we talked about that the names on this list are not particularly exciting. If you go up and down the list, the right-handed relievers, the left-handed relievers, you look at maybe some starting pitchers that you could convert into relievers, which is, of course, a big trend in baseball right now. There aren't a whole lot of names on this list that excite you, and it certainly makes us wonder that the only way to really fix this Diamondbacks bullpen may well have to come be a trade.

Yeah, the names just really aren't there. I mean, you know, there's definitely some guys on the list that could serve as, you know, middle relievers depth pieces to kind of help, you know, round out a bullpen. Right. But if you're looking for someone to come in and just be that like stopper at the back end of the bullpen, you know, there's not a lot to pick from that isn't going to cost, you know, your left arm. So I don't know that they're going to be able to really make that kind of commitment. I don't even know that they should.

They probably honestly shouldn't. And so, you know, that got us thinking about maybe alternative strategies like, you know, taking starting pitchers that, you know, maybe don't have quite the interest that, you know, as a starter anymore, they maybe could move into a relief role. Or they're going to have to look at that trade market. And I really think that that that's probably where. they go. I wouldn't be surprised to see them sign a free agent or two, but those are probably going to be more sixth, seventh inning guys, you know, and maybe you look to kind of shuffle Archie

Bradley back to the eighth inning and maybe trade for a guy who can fill the ninth inning role for you. So I think it's going to be kind of a mixed bag. And I know the Diamondbacks will certainly do their homework on who they really want to target. And so they'll have to kind of look at the candidates they have internally and then sort of look to supplement and maybe look for some different skill sets so that on any given night, Tori Lavello has, you know, a number of options with different strengths that they can, you know, deploy on a nightly basis because, you know, going out and signing a guy like a Roldus Chapman who you just, you know, plug and play, you know, probably isn't feasible. let's go ahead and give maybe just a few more specific names that we had in mind that could be at least possibilities for the diamondbacks obviously you know all these names are going to be a really super long stretch at this point they're not tied to any rumors of any kind whatsoever this is all pure speculation on our end but we did talk a little bit about delin batances maybe being kind of uh you know your prototypical signature mike hayson type of a move uh delin batan batanzas literally through his first pitch of 2019, I believe, just last night of the night before. And it did go well. He struck out both batters he faced. But absolutely, Patensis has some major injury questions there. His velocity is significantly down this season from what it's been in the past. But he could be the kind of guy

that Mike Hazen brings on at a relatively low cost, or at least certainly wouldn't require any kind of a major commitment long term for a guy who's had the injury issues that Delen Botanis has had. I think that's an interesting name to at least keep in the back of your head. Some other guys, the name you mentioned, Jeff, that I thought was really interesting, is Chris Martin. He really has had a pretty strong season overall. One of the better names on this list, a 354 ERA between the Texas Rangers and the Atlanta Braves this season. He's been pretty good as, you know, maybe not, you know, quite your setup type guy, but certainly someone who can give you innings late in a game if you need to.

And he's under team control for quite a while. And he's not a free agent until, and there must be some sort of a misprint here. According to baseball reference, he's not a free agent until 2024, but he's also on the free agent list. So we're going to trust MLB trade rumors here and say Chris Martin is indeed a free agent. Those are a couple names that come up in my head, Jeff.

Is there anyone, is there anyone I'm missing that you think we should also bring up real quick here? You know, a guy like Craig Stamen, who's pitched with the Padres for a long. time has been it's been kind of a model of consistency uh you know uses a singer quite a lot has a ton of movement on it um is a guy that probably could come in and pitch the seventh or eighth inning pretty reliably he's older but i mean he's a veteran um and maybe there's something there uh you know they could maybe look at a guy like uh willie peralta who you know has had you know a couple down years maybe you look for a bounce back for someone like that um those are kind of the places that that they could

if they're looking for sort of a specialist and you know um with roster set to expand the 26 players I mean maybe a lefty like Tony Sip is another guy that that maybe they bring back I mean they've had him in the past um as as kind of a lefty specialist um they maybe take some of the burden off of Andrew Chafin in that role so those are some of the places that they could kind of look um again where you know and no if this is not wildly exciting to the listener that's because some of names just aren't wildly exciting but that's kind of where they're where they're going to be stuck sort of sort of picking through but but I do sort of like the Bantz's idea we'll kind of see how his velocity goes as he continues to work and

kind of build back up yeah you know perhaps by you know the postseason he's throwing significantly harder and frankly that's going to determine his market to a large degree I mean if he's you know 94 to 95, you know, that's not going to look nearly as good considering he was, you know, touching triple digits a year ago. So, you know, just kind of depending on how that plays out, I think that'll help determine his market. But, you know, the shoulder injury that's obviously very concerning, it'd be hard to imagine someone throwing like, you know, a fairly long-term, significant deal at him. And maybe he's interested in, you know, coming over on a one-year deal that's, you know,

10 or $12 million and you know the dime back's kind of rolled the dice that way. So that's one of the few opportunities I really see from the list of free agents. In terms of the trade market, I mean, I haven't done my homework in terms of who I think will be available, you know, really on the trade market. But, you know, my case, it's not afraid to pick up the phone. So it'll be interesting to see kind of how they play it out. But long story short, I don't think there's any like, you know, simple. immediate fix here. I think it's going to take a number of moves to kind of patch this thing up.

Probably the biggest story in Diamondbacks baseball over this last week or so has really had nothing to do with the team on the field and everything to do with the man you just mentioned, Mike Hazen, at the helm of this team. The Diamondbacks announced an extension with Mike Hazen just a few days ago. He was already under contract for two more seasons following this one. Jeff, I don't believe the details of the extension were ever announced, unless I miss something, unless you have some information that I don't. But, yeah, so the Diamondbacks bring back Mike Hazen as their general manager. Obviously, there was a big storyline with the Boston Red Sox moving on from Dave Dembrowski. A big opening there.

Obviously, Mike Hazen is about as connected to that organization as anyone in the game of baseball in terms of potentially filling that role. But the Diamondback step up to the plate. They take care of their GM, who's done, by all accounts, a phenomenal job so far in his time at the helm of this organization. And Jeff, I think for a lot of people, this is really good news. And it's definitely good to be able to get past the scare of the idea of Mike Hazen returning to the Boston Red Sox after what he's done here in Arizona. Absolutely. I mean, it was the right move for the organization. It was great.

you know, after after a period of frankly instability, it's been really nice to see them, you know, sort of find a groove, you know, and now commit to really sticking with it because the early returns have been very, very good with Hazen at the helm. So to see them, you know, make the investment, whatever that looks like is really encouraging. That's great. I mean, I think fans should rejoice at that fact. You know, they did hold, you know, the right to refuse clubs to talk to him for a GM role. But it seemed as if, you know, if he was going to get somehow some sort of promotion in terms of title, they couldn't necessarily keep other teams from talking to him. So the only way to really protect themselves was to, you

know, offer an extension. I would assume that he probably got a nice raise. And frankly, he should. He's built a lot of value for the organization. The farm system is now, you know, know, arguably top five in baseball and the future is looking brighter. He's managed to put a winner on the field while moving some really key assets and kind of, you know, sort of retool the team, you know, as a work in progress, you know, without having to, you know, straight up tank, which is something the ownership does not seem interested in. I don't think it's a good move for the fan base.

And I'm, you know, been frankly impressed with their ability. to kind of, you know, make it work on the fly. So it's great news. The stability alone should be celebrated after, you know, some of the GMs that the team has been through. And, you know, Mike Hazen is the third GM of the team since I've been writing about the Diamondbacks. So it's really nice to know that there's, you know, something they can count on here.

And, you know, frankly, he looks like one of the better, you know, young GMs in baseball. I mean, if he were available, you have to assume, you know, for a team like Boston, he would be, you know, at or near the very top of the list. So we don't have to worry about that now and we can sleep better at night. At Andrew AJTS, how does the team improve its offensive consistency going into next year? Seems like it's been a problem since the start of 2018 at least. I think that's a good question. We kind of touched on the pitching elements of the Diamondbacks trying to improve.

improve over the offseason. But Jeff, I think what has been revealed especially specifically over these last couple of weeks is that this Diamondbacks offense is maybe a little bit lacking in depth and maybe a little bit in just general consistency as well, as Andrew points out. And I mean, it's not unexpected, right? The Diamondbacks don't have J.D. Martinez anymore. They don't have Paul Goldsmith. They don't have A.J. Pollock.

You know, this is a much different looking offense than we've seen in years past. And frankly, I think it's performed pretty well by all standards, given, you know, the roster that they do have with the season that Eduardo Escobar has had with the season, Kutel Marta's had, the Diamondbacks, I think, have done pretty well for themselves. But Jeff, I think it's also clear that this is probably not a playoff caliber offense. And there's clearly strides to be made coming up here in the few. From my standpoint, I think that Dalton Varshow, if and when he plays a major league game, hopefully at the start of the 2020 season, I think that's probably about when the Diamondbacks would first be looking to bring him up. I think he could legitimately be a bigger boost than any outside player that the Diamondbacks would realistically bring in over the offseason.

I don't think the Diamondbacks are, you know, going to be trying to bring back J.D. Martinez or anything if he opts out. I don't think they're going to be in there for any of those big names. And it may well happen that for the first time in a long time, the Diamondback's best offensive helpers are actually, you know, already exist internally within the organization. And it may be that we just have to wait for them to get up to this level. Yeah, I mean, they don't have a lot of holes, you know, in the lineup, you know, heading into 2020. There's not, there's not going to be a big turnover.

Assuming you could tell Marte continues to play center field, you know, second base is maybe a place that they could look to upgrade. But at the same time, there's, there's not a ton available in the free agent market, a second base. That's not looking, you know, real promising there. So, you know, you could, you could see about maybe adding an outfielder or a corner outfielder, but David Peralta will be back. you know those are really some of the only spots that they could really even you know feasibly add someone and i think it's still to be seen you know where on the diamond dalton varshal ends up right he's athletic enough to play a number of positions um i think the club would probably prefer that he continues to catch and then maybe get some action elsewhere um you know kind

of like an austin barnes has with the dodgers though i think uh varshall's probably a better hitter So that's maybe a way that they can get his bat in the lineup with regularity. But there's really not a lot of places where, you know, there's an immediate hole to be filled and upgraded. And so it's going to be really tough for them to just improve the quality of the offense. And I think when we talk about offensive consistency, you know, the reason it's inconsistent is because the lineup isn't necessarily full of great hitters. So I think they need to improve the overall quality, but there aren't a lot of places to just outright do it. It's very hard to make marginal upgrades. If you take a hypothetical, call it a two and a half win second baseman, you know, to make, you know, to acquire a three and a half win second basement, you know, it's quite the financial upgrade or it's going to cost you prospects or.

or some combination of that. So it's very, very challenging to make those marginal upgrades, you know, when you have a functional player in the lineup at a certain position to begin with. So I don't know where that's really going to come from unless they do something that is, you know, frankly, you know, kind of shocking or at least surprising to us. So maybe they continue to try to, you know, promote from within like you're saying. and, you know, maybe there's guys like Varso that are ready by, you know, some point in the season next year. Hopefully, you know, kind of in the first half, you know, maybe a guy like Seth Beer is ready to go.

So those might be the ways that they choose to do that. And, you know, they're probably going to take some lumps with those younger guys at first. But, you know, you hope you pays off in the long term. It might not be an immediate boost, but it probably ends up being one down the road. Baseball America released their list. of the first team lineup is what they call it. Across all of minor league baseball, these are like their minor league all stars.

And on the first team lineup, the Diamondbacks have three players on this list. Dalton Varsho, who of course we've talked about, he was their catcher on this first team list. Seth Beer, the first baseman, who we've also just discussed Kevin Crone, who of course had a wild season for AAA Reno this year. He came in on the list as well at the D.H.

position. So, Jeff, this Diamondbacks farm system continues to climb up the rankings to make waves across the game. And that has also been a huge story over these last couple of weeks, even as the Diamondbacks have struggled at the Major League level. Some of these minor league affiliates of the Diamondbacks have really started to make history, frankly. I know you had, you said this before the show out of nine teams, three of the Diamondbacks nine farm teams. have come out and won the championship for their league, those being the Jackson Generals, and the Visalia Rahide, along with the Hillsborough Hopes. All three of those teams came out as champions.

Alec Thomas played a big role, potentially the Diamondbacks number one prospect, maybe they're number two, depending on who you talk to. He played a big role for Vysalia and their championship, obviously, Dalton Varshow and Pavin Smith coming up big with the Jackson Generals and their championship run. Jeff, this continues to be a very exciting farm system moving forward. And the fact that you don't live as a major league organization to win minor league championships, but it's certainly, you know, if nothing else, a good sign of things to come. Yeah, I mean, in addition to the three clubs that won championships, two others,

Kang County and one of the two Dominican Summer League teams made the playoffs. the Dominican Summer League team actually made it to the championship round and lost in game five so they were one win away from from claiming another crown wow so that's you know that's all very very encouraging and Missoula frankly was you know down to the final series with with a chance to make the playoffs as well so very competitive from you know really from top to bottom and that's something the Diamondbacks have always, you know, placed an emphasis on is, is having their, having their prospects and having their minor leaguers playing in competitive, meaningful games. I think they really, you know, still believe that that's an important element of player

development is, you know, not just the mechanics, not just adjusting your approach to the plate, but really playing for something, playing for your team, playing for something big, playing for an accomplishment. You know, that kind of competitiveness, you know, it's hard to say what that's all worth at the end of the day. I mean, talent still largely reigns supreme. But I do think it's encouraging. I think it shows that there's a lot of talent in this farm system.

There's a reason why it's ranked so highly. And, you know, it's showing, you know, on minor league fields. And, you know, it won't be long before it's showing on the major league. field as well. But we're probably a year or two away from seeing, you know, some of those names really start to come up. But the future is looking, looking brighter now than frankly it has in a really, really long time. I mean, the farm system has been really quite bad for quite a long time. And so this is certainly the most depth that I can recall seeing in the six years that I've covered the team, you know, from top to bottom. And a lot of that talent is down in

down at Missoula, it's down in Hillsborough. It's in the Arizona Summer League, it's at Kane County. Those guys are a long ways away, and there's going to be attrition, and there's guys that look like right now on paper that you want to pencil them into the 2022 lineup that aren't going to make it.

But there are some guys that will, and I think it's really encouraging, and it's been really exciting to follow all year long, and it's important to the Diamondbacks, and hopefully those guys will carry that can competitiveness, you know, into Chase Field here in the not too distant future.

A couple things here as we wrap up this 13th edition of the Rattle podcast. I want to talk about Kevin Ginkle here in just a moment as he notched his first save of his career. It's night over the Miami Marlins. The Diamondbacks win seven to five. We'll get to him here in just a second. But first, Cattel All-Star Game 19 starter, big Cattel Marte fan out there. He asks, think any Jackson generals get called up since their season just ended, a valid question, as indeed the generals coming off of their championship victory.

In theory, it is possible that the Diamondbacks could potentially make a move to call up, you know, a Phaven Smith or a Dalton Varshow or, you know, maybe one of the more seasoned veterans that were on that roster with the Jackson generals. Jeff, do you see that as a legitimate possibility here over these last couple of weeks? You know, the team, you know, at this point after tonight's game is wrapped up, you know, only has 11 games remaining. Right. You know, it's possible. I mean, they can still make 40-man roster moves. They can move someone off and add someone.

I mean, they could add Dalton Varshan if they wanted to and bring them up. You know, after a long season and these guys playing, you know, 130, 140 games already this year, I kind of doubt there's much incentive to do that. As much as we'd be interested in seeing it, you know, the team is five and a half out of the wild card. They're pretty determined, most likely, to try to give it everything they've got for the last little bit of the regular season. I don't see any of those players coming up and making the kind of impact that somehow allows them to close that gap. you know it could be interesting for those guys to you know get a taste of the major leagues but they've got a long season already most of them have you know a lot of them have set

career highs this year and the number of games they've played it's been a long year and so i'm kind of doubtful that that happens um could it happen i mean sure they could do that um but i don't i don't think that they will at a z axel on twitter i think we've pretty much covered this. Want to make sure we at least acknowledge the question, though. He was wondering what the Diamondbacks were looking at moving or shaking up on the big league roster now that things have started to click a little bit. He also wondered about Jake Lamb and whether or not he will have a starting

job next spring. I think we've touched on both of those questions pretty clearly in this episode. When it comes to Jake Lamb, I think we're both pretty sure he's a pretty solid non-tender candidate, unfortunately, for this offseason. Moving on from that, though, Kevin Ginkle, Jeff, this is a guy who came up. I think he was listed on some list as the Diamondbacks number 30 prospect, like right at the very back end of that top 30 prospects list for some people. But he has looked really, really good for the Diamondbacks. He's got a pretty solid fastball 94, 95 miles per hour somewhere in that range. He's got a really good slider with some impressive downward spike to it. And the numbers bear that out so far that he's been. been really good for the Diamondbacks, an ERA of 1.83, 19 and two thirds innings, 22 strikeouts, opponent batting average are just 164. The BABIP right now is all the way down

at 209, so probably not super sustainable there. But nonetheless, Jeff, Kevin Ginkle has certainly shown enough to, I think, receive some legitimate consideration for a bigger bullpen roll come 2020. Yeah, I definitely agree. And it's been interesting. to listen to to to tory, you know, talk about Kevin Ginkle and, and just kind of the faith that he started to really, uh, really have in him and, and, and the way that Ginkle competes. I mean, he certainly isn't afraid of guys. Um, and he will go after them. Uh, you know, he's, you know, striking guys out of the clip that is, is, is pretty impressive. Um, you know, it's, it's not insane. He's not amongst the relief leaders and strikeouts per nine innings. But, you know, he's

certainly posting the kinds of numbers that you want to see. He's managing his walk totals. They're not super low, but they're not hurting him either. And he's been really hard to hit. One thing that's kind of interesting is he always kind of has been, and it's really shown this year, but he is kind of a fly ball guy. And so you do sort of wonder, does that catch up with him at some point? He hasn't allowed many home runs. The series only allowed two. in 20 games. So you kind of wonder if that will hold, considering the number of fly balls he allows.

Yeah. But, you know, some guys, you know, having, you know, where you want to be as a pitcher is kind of, you want to be on an extreme in one area, whether that's an extreme strikeout guy or an extreme ground ball guy like Brad Ziegler was for all those years. Or, you know, sometimes you can be an extreme fly ball guy and get away with it because the kinds of,

fly balls you get are the big towering type that are you know really easy to catch for outs so um you know the the the the the fly ball rate is is maybe a little concerning but the types of fly balls he's getting are pretty manageable so um i do think he he pencils in you know most likely is probably an opening day you know reliever um come 2020 and you know that's a that's that's a that's a that's a that's a that's a win for the Diamondbacks. It's really helpful to have quality relievers that are making the major leave minimum. And he's just 25 right now. So he might be a fixture for this bullpen for a considerable length of time.

And, you know, maybe he's someone who just even from within helps stabilize the bullpen, you know, in addition to whatever moves they make this offseason. Certainly something to be monitoring as the season bears on, as Jeff mentioned, earlier, 11 games left in this 2019 season. We certainly appreciate your support as the season has gone on. That's all that we have here for this 14th edition of the Rattle Podcast. I definitely said 13 before. We're going to pretend that didn't happen.

This is episode 14 of the Rattle Podcast. Thank you so much, as always, for tuning in if you haven't already. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at at the RattleAZ. You can find Jeff on Twitter, if I'm not mistaken, at Outfield Grass 24. Did I get that right, Jeff? Nailed it. Naled it. All right, perfect.

You can find me on Twitter as well at at Jesse N-Friedman. That's J-E-S-S-E, the letter N followed by F-R-I-E-D-M-A-N. Be sure to stay connected with us. We would certainly love to hear from you. Thank you once again, ladies and gentlemen, for tuning in. That's all we have this week. We'll be back with more next week on the Arizona Diamondbacks.