PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ep. 27: Week Two Reflections

Episode Date: April 19, 2021

We discuss Bumgarner's bounce-back outing, a surprisingly stable bullpen, and which early season breakouts we're buying into. 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.

Welcome into episode 27 of the Rattle podcast. As always, my name is Jesse Friedman, along with Jeff Weiser, my co-host here on The Rattle. Jeff, we're coming off a sort of a pretty fun game to watch this afternoon earlier today. I guess it was the morning for most people here on the West Coast. Diamondbacks able to salvage a series split out in Washington, D.C., big 5-2 victory to cap off that series here. Madison Bumgarner, Jeff, on the mound, five innings, one run. I think we both feel that there's still certainly some things there for Mad Bum to work through, some things that we still have our eye on.

But nonetheless, good to see, just good to see him get a win. As much as much as, you know, we in the sports, you know, analytics sort of world kind of frown on the win as a statistic, nonetheless, his Madison Bumgarner's second win. He has had all of two wins in his Arizona Diamondbacks career, which of course is pretty underwhelming. But Jeff, nonetheless, good to see earlier today. Hopefully this can get the Diamondbacks on the right foot here

headed into this next week. Yeah, considering where everything had been for Bumgarner, just to get any kind of a positive result feels like a real victory. Yeah, I mean, definitely some things to consider some things to work on. He fell behind a lot of guys. He left some pitches and some undesirable locations, but kind of got away with it. I think the Nats were probably a pretty good lineup for him to face. It's not the most daunting lineup in baseball, especially against a left-hander.

So that seemed to kind of play in his favor. And, you know, it is what it is. We'll take it. You know, any little bit that, you know, of success that really the team can get from him. right now considering where things have been is just, you know, feels huge. Yeah, we were talking before we hopped on the air earlier just about how, at least from my standpoint, Jeff, it feels like his pitches are doing what they're supposed to do. Like there's actually still a decent amount of nastiness in Madison Bumgarner's pitches.

You see the occasional curveball that's pretty nasty. Got some good swings and misses on that today. The cutter still has some really good, some good action. into it as well, the fastball. Velocity seems to be pretty good, hanging mostly around the 91 range in his outing today. So for me, Jeff, that's pretty comforting. I don't see Madison Bumgarner.

After what I saw today, and granted, I watched pretty much all of his outing today. I missed some, at least, I missed some of his earlier starts in the season, so I haven't seen everything from him this year. But from what I saw today, it seems like his pitches are doing what you would normally expect them to do. And it's sort of just a matter of executing those pitches.

His command, like you mentioned, was a little off. There were a few times where, you know, Carson Kelly puts his glove right at the bottom of the strike zone and he just misses, you know, way down or way up or way out or way in or something. You could tell his fastball command just wasn't totally there for him today. And I think with Madbom, if command is the only thing missing, I think, you know, he's the kind of guy who has enough years under his belt. That's not something I think is going to elude him for very long.

So it is Mad Bum going to return to his former self, as we say, you know, the type of where he was with the Giants, probably not. But at this point, I'm semi-comfortable, Jeff. And maybe this is me being a little bold here. But I'm semi-comfortable saying I think Bumgarner will settle down at some point this year. I think he'll at least be a viable pitcher for the Diamond. backs this season. Yeah, I agree. I think he, I think he will kind of find his groove enough to just sort of settle in and kind of hang out, you know, find a place for himself where, you know, we

can start to rely on the production a little bit more. I mean, it is a very like stuff-oriented league. You know, everyone is is really into, you know, the nastiest, breaking balls, the, you know, hardest thrown fast balls. And Madison Bumgarner just isn't playing that game. Yeah. So, yeah, I still think he can find it. I think it'll take time. But he might just be one, you know, he also just might be like one little mechanical adjustment away from getting there. And I'm with you.

I think that's the asset that he brings, right, is that bevy of experience to where, you know, this probably isn't the first time in his career that he's had to kind of try to get himself back on track. So he knows what to do. He knows himself, you know. And I do think that he'll find it. Ultimately, how good is that? I mean, I think we all kind of know what we expect that to still look like. But viable, yes, we'll keep them in games, yes.

And there are just going to be some teams that he'll face that probably get me pretty tough for him. Teams that have a lot of, like, righty mashers are going to be tough for Bumgarner. Yeah. That just kind of is what it is. But if he can face, you know, in the event that he faces teams where they're fairly left-hand, prominent, you know, he's going to stand a chance. And so I think, you know, matchups, matchups too are going to play a big role and sort of, you know, ultimately how he settles out.

Yeah, I think, obviously, Jeff, this team has sort of been hit with the injury bug. And so we were talking earlier about how, you know, the team that the diamond backs are right now, the team that we're watching every day, is actually really kind of a cheap counterfeit of the team that we actually expected at the beginning of the year. And obviously, every team goes through their injury issues throughout the season. But the Diamondbacks have had it especially rough here at the beginning of the season. Obviously, Cotel Marte is the really big blow. The team is not really committed to too firm of a timeline on that recently.

So we'll sort of see what happens there as far as you could tell goes. But it seems like he's on the injured list. It's at least going to be 10 days, probably more than that. So that's obviously a big hit. Tim LaCastro, the most. recent victim, who just went down on the injured list after a dislocated pinky in the game yesterday. And the list goes on from there. Jeff, Christian Walker went down with an injury as well. Cole Calhoun now just sort of getting back into the swing of things. Nick Ahmed, just getting back

into the swing of things. So hopefully as time goes on here, the Diamondbacks can find a way to get healthy to try to hopefully get more guys back from the injured list than they're sending onto it. And I think that will certainly help this team, this team moving forward. And for us, Jeff, I know we were talking earlier about how, you know, that team that we envision in our heads with Christian Walker, with Cattel Marte, you know, with Zach Gallen back in midseason form, hopefully as he gets stretched out here, getting back into the swing of things. That team actually could be pretty decent. And I don't think we're not going to go out here and say we think that team is a, you know, a World Series contender or anything like that. But the Diamondbacks at full health, at least from what we've seen so far with Carson Kelly being as good as he's been.

I'm sure we'll talk about him later with Eduardo Escobar being, you know, looking more like the Eduardo Escobar of 2019. There's definitely a compelling case to be made that once those guys come back, once this team hopefully gets healthy, you know, that maybe, Maybe they could flirt with a wild card spot down the road later this season. Yeah, and they're going to have to really do their best to just kind of hold serve in the meantime, right? I mean, there's a significant amount of time that will pass before they really come back is, you know, like the full, the full squad. And that's assuming no one else gets hurt, right? Yeah, which is a big if at the rate they're going. Oh, man.

I know. You're right. I mean, that's the thing is like they've been bitten pretty bad. And it's interesting, they went into the off season. and went through most of it, we kept watching the bullpen pretty closely and going like, this is a pretty bad bullpen. On paper,

this does not look like a very good bullpen. You know, J.B. Bikowskus hadn't emerged, you know, like he did in the spring yet. You're just kind of going like, this is going to need some help. And sure enough, they go out and get, you know,

two veterans. Well, you know, Tyler Klipper, hasn't thrown a pitch in a regular season game. Joaquin Soraya had hardly got any work. And so you're right back to square one. with the bullpen. Bikowskis was called up today, but it hasn't pitched yet.

So, yeah, it's just, it's tough. I mean, they were down for the first two weeks of the season with their very best pitcher. They've been down now for a good little chunk, and it may turn into, to, you know, continue to linger on. I mean, they're without their best hitter. They're without another one of their best hitters in Christian Walker. I mean, yeah, don't, like, I won't be ready to close the book on, you know, understanding who this. team is until I see all those guys back. Because right now, you're right, they're just,

they're just not themselves. I want to spend some time delving into this starting rotation because it's fascinating, Jeff. There's really no one in this rotation who, you know, we have a super clear picture of the kind of picture

that they are and are going to be throughout the rest of the season. Seems like everyone in the rotation right now has their own their own little storyline. And of course, since the last episode that we did, Caleb Smith was actually taken out of the rotation and into the bullpen where he's actually fared quite nicely. We'll talk about that more here in a little bit. But going through the rotation, Jeff, we talked about Mad Bum already. Hopefully we get to see

him start to get things a little back on track. The fact that he has 20 strikeouts and 18 and two-thirds innings is semi-comfiting for me. Obviously, he's giving up a lot of hits and walks. And I don't know if his strikeout rate is necessarily pristine. But he's definitely had more swing and miss this year than I think I remember in the middle of his struggles last season. So Mad Bum things hopefully looking up there. But one name that sticks out to me, Jeff, is Luke Weaver, who flirted with a no-hitter in Cincinnati. And then several days later, I watched his most recent start.

And it just seemed like he was just getting hit all over the place. He's been basically a two-pitch pitcher. He's gone almost exclusively fastball changeup. And even at that, we're talking like 70, 75% fastball. So Luke Weaver's pitch mix has really not been much of a mix at all. And yet he's been bizarrely effective. Even after his most recent star, which I think he only pitched into the fourth inning and gave up four or five runs, I want to say it was.

But so far for the season, Jeff, he only has one walk against 14 strikeouts over 16 and two thirds innings. he has given up four home runs, which seems to be an ongoing issue there. He's had some good luck on his side with a lot of those homers being just solo shots. But by and large, he's only allowed 13 hits in one walk over 16 and two thirds innings. And you look at it from that standpoint, and that seems like really anything I could ever hope for for a guy like Luke Weaver. So, Jeff, what have you noticed in the Diamondbacks right-hander? Yeah, it's a total conundrum.

I mean, it's very interesting. You see the start where he's almost unhittable. And I watched that start pitch for pitch. And it was so intriguing. Carson Kelly continued to set up, you know, in certain spots. And with his fastball, Weaver just missed like again and again and again and again. But no one could touch it. It was really fascinating.

He wasn't necessarily like the sharpest I've, you know, that he's probably ever been, but he does have good life on the fastball. And I think that can sneak up on batters. He throws hard, you know, but not exceptionally hard. But it's just that I think he gets enough

like late movement on the fastball, but it's tough. And the change up is just so good that it keeps batters from sitting on the fastball. They know the changeups coming. I think the fact that they, aren't up there hunting breaking balls that they expect him to hang probably might work, at least in the short term, in Weaver's favor.

And so they're sort of up there. They just looked uncomfortable. No one really could settle in. But that same problem with location, we'll come back to bite him at times. You know, Kelly will set up down and Weaver will miss up, middle, and the ball gets hit pretty hard. So it's really, really tough. I mean, he can make a living as a two.

two pitch pitcher. I mean, that can work, but it works for very, very few guys. And I'm nowhere near ready to call Luke Weaver one of those guys. So it's, you know, it's kind of like the mad bump situation where you're just living with the guy like start to start and, you know, kind of hoping for the best. And sometimes maybe you're super sharp and guys, you know, hit them where they ain't and bad luck happens and you get pulled early. And sometimes you aren't super sharp and yet no one can get a beat on you for whatever reason and you succeed. So baseball's weird like that. I'm not ready to draw any conclusions just yet. Yeah, I think, I don't think I got to watch Luke Weaver's really dominant downing against Cincinnati. I think I

I was limited to just watching highlights after the game. And you know, you see the, you see the line that he put up. You know, I think it was like eight innings, one hit allowed. You know, the numbers just jumped right off the page. And, and you go to the high. video, you're expecting to see just some nasty stuff, you know, hitting all the corners and really keeping guys off balance. And that wasn't really what I saw in the, you know, just the highlights that I was able to watch from Luke Weaver's outing. It was really just a lot of pitches where, like you said, he wasn't really hitting Carson Kelly's glove and nor was he necessarily throwing a lot of those pitches in a location. I think he would have wanted to.

but for some reason Cincinnati was just really, really struggling to actually square the ball up. So, yeah, suffice it to say with Luke, as much as, you know, I'm overjoyed with the raw numbers that he's put up this year. There's still definitely some questions for me on the longevity of if this is something you can continue into the future. Moving on from Weaver, though, Taylor Weidner. How about this guy, Jeff? He was not long ago. We talked about this in the last episode. Taylor Widener last season when he pitched against the Los Angeles Dodgers

in a preseason game right before the season started. I think that that memory will be stamped in Diamondbacks fans' heads for forever when he got just absolutely destroyed by a stacked Dodgers lineup. But since then, he has really taken some strides in the right direction. He's covered 17 innings over his three starts so far. The ERA for what it's worth at this point. 1.159 looks pretty good. Only 11 strikeouts.

I think if you're looking at these numbers and, you know, thinking of Taylor Widener is a future, you know, a future ace or number two starter. I wouldn't say that's necessarily what I've seen so far. We've texted back and forth about this, Jeff. And I think one of the things I mentioned early on was he looks like a number five starter who's just doing his job, you know? He's hitting his spots. He's locating well.

He's actually throwing the ball where the catcher's glove is, which seems to be something that a lot of guys in the rotation have struggled with to this point. And yeah, the stuff is not electric. You know, it's a low mid-90s fastball. It's, you know, it's a slider. There's nothing super, super nasty in there. But he's done a really nice job so far of keeping guys off balance. And, and hey, even if, you know, that's really more, you know, a number four, number five

starter type in the end. end, you know, the diamondbacks will certainly take what they've gotten from him so far. Absolutely. I mean, we can, yeah, we can definitely talk about the ways in which he is maybe, you know, not fantastic or, you know, like, won't make your hair stand up. But what he has done has been really effective. And so, and that's his role, right? And then you can sort of see it on his face when he goes out.

he definitely looks like he's there to do a job and he's just kind of trying to like navigate one bad at a time like get himself through the lineup. And maybe that, you know, like being as green as he is, you know, maybe that's just kind of where he is right now in his career. And if so, that's totally fine. His velocity is down a little bit, but I attribute that more to the fact that he's starting and not pitching in relief. And so he can't just, you know, rear back and throw heaters.

Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, he's kind of struggled with the swing and miss. He's not striking a lot of guys out. And he's kept the ball in the yard, which is, you know, quite hard to do these days. So, I mean, he's benefiting from a couple things, and they kind of tend to boil down to, you know, managing the contact that batters make against him. But, you know, to his credit, he hasn't walked a lot of guys. He's not, you know, he's not putting himself in difficult situations. And I think there's something to be said for that.

it might even be a little teachable to some of the guys like a Luke weaver or some of the other pitchers on the staff is like, you know, we could just keep the bases clear. You know, like not everything has to be electric and he's doing his job. So I don't know how long this lasts. I imagine they'll kind of keep running him out there in that capacity for, you know, for some time. But yeah, I don't know. I'm really interested to see how long he stays in that role. It could go on for the better part of the season. I wouldn't be terribly surprised.

So we'll have to kind of ride it out and see. But I don't know that his current results are obviously fully sustainable, but he has been really effective. And if he could just continue to keep the ball in the yard, a lot of the rest will kind of take care of itself, right? because baseball is just such a home run dominant game right now. So, you know, he's doing that and it's working. Yeah, yeah, one homer in 17 innings.

That'll spur you on to success right there in and of itself. You mentioned not walking a lot of guys. And I didn't really notice this earlier, but just perusing the numbers here. Luke Weaver, one walk in 16 and 2 thirds innings. Taylor Widener, five walks and 17 innings. You'll certainly take that. Merrill Kelly even, as bad as things have. been for him only four walks in 16 innings.

And then Madbom is on the higher end, nine walks and 18 and two thirds, which is still at least reasonable. So that's one thing you have to say about this diamond back starting pitching staff so far, although some guys have certainly been more effective than others. They've, by and large, by and large, made teams earn it, which I guess there's something to be said for that. But as far as Merrill Kelly goes, Jeff, this is the last, the last one that will. that we'll go over here.

Merrill Kelly, 16 inning so far, he's given up an even 16 runs, 23 hits. He's given up four home runs, only 10 strikeouts. I know there was some hesitation over the off season. Do you really want to tender a contract to a guy who is coming off thoracic outlet surgery, which the history of pitchers returning from that procedure is not exactly, does not exactly spark any sort of optimism but the Diamondbacks went for anyway and so far the results have been

not great for the Deepx righty yeah the velocity is down just a little bit and it's you know it is what it is with him he doesn't live and die with velocity so maybe that's not of the biggest concern

but his four seamer velocity and his cutter both down just a little bit yeah it's you know Merrill is who he is you know he got on that terrific run last year before it was hurt you know and it just kind of felt like he maybe captured lightning in a bottle there for a little bit before it came to an end and you know i don't think this is representative of who he is either but i mean if if if if if meryl kelly is your fifth starter that's you know not the end of the world um but when the rest of your rotation is full of

madison bumgarner uh luke weaver and taylor widener well you know uh i don't know where merrill kelly slots in that. But you probably have too many guys that are sort of a similar overall caliber. And, you know, that's just going to continue to be sort of a bugaboo for this team. There's no easy fix coming.

Getting Gallen back was the shot in the arm that they really needed. But yeah, it's going to be tough for him. I think there's some better outings in this future. He's just going to have to continue to locate his swing and miss is way down right now. Yeah. So does that

come back. I mean, if he could find a way to do that, that'll really help his cause. I do think something that you pointed out before is, is maybe the bigger, sort of scarier thing, which is, you know, the walks have crept up and, you know, the home runs have too. And while say the home runs, you know, are just going to happen, you can't be putting extra guys on base when they do happen. So yeah, he's going to have to find a way to do that. One last little thing is like his left on base percentage, Like when he comes out of the game and leaves runners on, the bullpen is doing him no favors and allowing those runners to continue the inning

and come around to score. So that's inflated to ZRA a little bit. I think he's a little better than we've seen, but he's still probably just a number five starter at the end of the day. Yeah, yeah. There were a few questions that we got relating to the rotation that I want to jump through here.

So Kyle Collins asked, what is Luke Weaver? Is he the lights out pitcher we saw in AZ against the Reds? or a four and done can't find the zone consistently guy like we saw yesterday. Very fair question. I think we've sort of addressed that to this point. I think we maybe slightly lean more towards the latter, Jeff. I'm hesitant to really go one way or another on this because I just haven't really seen anything that suggests any sort of longevity.

And yet the numbers are hard to argue with. I mean, he's, you know, one walk, 14 strikeout, 16 and two thirds innings over three starts. Those numbers are absolutely respectable. Yeah, I agree. But yeah, it is tough. I mean, I'm going to need to see it for a longer duration of time. And what continues to keep me from buying in more on Luke is just the continual missing of spots, you know, in sort of a similar fashion. And until his, you know, command really turns around and improves, I mean,

It's just going to be tough for him. And let's face it, too. I mean, he's not going to walk a lot of guys when he's really hitable because they're just going to put the ball on play. And so I think that contributes to the low walk rate. I mean, it's good that he's not, you know, walking guys on four pitches. I mean, that's great. But also, that's like the most basic job requirement of being a major league pitcher. So I think that that number is even maybe artificially low at this juncture, just given how hard he's been hit at, you know, at times.

So it's tough for him, but I mean, you know, you see a night where he's like locked in and it all works and you kind of, it does make you think sort of like, well, what if? Like this doesn't have to be 100% repeatable, but could he repeat 80% of this? I don't know if that's in there or not, but I'm, I'm interested to continue watching and see how this two pitch situation goes because I, I think there could be something to it for him. I mean, he struggled with the breaking ball since he was a prospect. I mean, it's just, it's never come for him. And so I am sort of of the mindset of like, you know, at some point you have to just pull the chord and say, this is who I am. These are my two best pitches. And I'm just going to try to make it work for me.

Ultimately, that might mean that he ends up being like a pretty good relief pitcher someday. But for the time being, I am still curious to see how that plays in the rotation. Well, speaking of pretty good relief pitchers, Kyle also asked how long of a league pitcher. does Madbum have who look good today, but the previous two starts were not encouraging, as we discussed earlier. What's his season outlook seem to be going forward and could a bullpen stint come eventually? As far as that go, Jeff, I know we touched on this already, but as far as that goes, I don't think the bullpen stint is very likely.

I don't think Madison Pumpkarner, frankly, would be a whole lot better in the bullpen than he would as a starter. I mean, the issue is not really a stuff as much as just the command. So I don't think you're, we'll just say if you throw Madison Bumgarner in the bullpen, he's not all of a sudden going to be throwing 98 miles an hour from the left side. So I think he's probably sticking in the rotation and you're just sort of hoping for the best at this point. Is that sort of your sense on the situation, Jeff? Yeah, I think you just ride it out.

And here's the hard part. It's like, what is he as a reliever? Yeah. Like a lefty with some deception who throws 92? Like, that might have worked, you know, like a, you know, even just in very recent past, that might have worked. But now with a three batter minimum, like, he's not someone that you can just bring in to face like two lefties and get him out.

Yeah. So, I mean, that's not a concern for like now, but like that is a conversation that maybe we end up having, you know, two, three years from now. And that's where it starts to get really troubling. He's like, if he doesn't write the ship, what does that mean for the longer term duration of his tenure in Arizona because he's just, there are guys that, you know, Luke Weaver, for example,

I mean, he already throws in the mid-90s with a really legit change-up in a lively fastball and let that stuff play up in a bullpen role. I mean, that could be kind of nasty. Stick, Madison Bumgarner in a bullpen role and it doesn't

play up the same. So it's apples to oranges for me. I think his only viable role is as a starter really and that's just is what it is. Yeah, yeah, I remember when the when the Mad Bum news first came down and I was semi excited. I thought the price they got was pretty good. 85 million seemed lower than what most people were expecting. But looking at the structure of this contract now, Jeff, I don't want to dwell on Mad Bum here for too long.

But the fact that it is front, that it is backloaded and that you know, you've got these two cheaper years up front and then it's backloaded for the final three years is not. ideal. You're talking about north of $60 million still on the books for Madbom after this season. And the reason for that is because these first two years have been really low. I think last year was like $6 million. And then this year, I think, is around that same number. It's a single digit number, if I remember right? And then things really start to escalate once you get into next year. So the structure of that contract, Jeff, does not look great right now. No. It's like a subprime mortgage. Like it's just you got into the teaser rate and, yeah, you're going to have to

write out the end of it. And all the more reason to focus on him getting himself right as opposed to, you know, the short term of what's maybe gone wrong. Yeah. Yeah. And as long as the Diamondbacks aren't in the think of a, think of World Series contention. I think they have some time to let Mad Bum sort of struggle through and try to figure some things out. And like we said, I think we, I think we feel at least on some level that he'll find

his way back to at least being a viable starting pitcher. All right. Aside from the starting rotation, I want to jump into the bullpen here. Something that we've talked about so many times, Jeff, is the Diamondbacks ongoing reluctance to allow guys who just, who just pretty clearly seem to not be cut out for a major league, you know, starting rotation job year in and year out. whether it's issues with durability or just their command or their stuff or not having enough pitches or whatever it may be. The Diamondbacks have had a number of these sorts of pitchers over the years, and they always seem to do everything they possibly can to get these guys into their rotation,

and moving them to the bullpen is just sort of the very, very last thing that they'll try. And the Diamondbacks this season, it may be taken a slightly different approach. Alex Young, of course, has sort of been moved into the bullpen more permanently, it seems. Taylor Clark is another guy who pitched the eighth inning today, essentially, in the absence of the many Diamondbacks relievers who have fallen upon injury, Joachim Soria, Tyler Clippard, Chris DeVinsky having a personal issue recently as well. The Diamondbacks have been pretty thin at the back end. And over these last few days, they've literally had Taylor Clark, you know, their former number five star, pitching pitcher up from the miners.

He has wrote it out as sort of a back end reliever type. And the numbers don't look great. He's given up several home runs. I think he gave up a three run homer the other day that really inflated his ERA. But overall, I've actually kind of liked what I've seen from Taylor Clark in that role. Today, he was throwing 97. He's got a pretty decent slider to go with it. And Jeff, it seems like a sign that, you know, maybe this approach that the Diamondbacks

have been so reluctant to take for so many years with so many guys, maybe the approach of just sort of coming to terms with who players are and not being afraid to push them to the bullpen can actually make the Diamondbacks bullpen a little bit more formidable than what it's been over these last several years. Yeah, it's the prime candidate for that kind of move and that kind of move working out well. I mean, their hand has been a little forced organizationally

from a lack of pitching depth and so needing to keep guys like Alex Young or Taylor Clark stretched out to some degree in case you need that spot start in case someone goes down you need someone yeah so it's it's understandable to a degree but also at times i mean we've seen it we've seen what's happened with j buchowski more recently of like hey we're just going to like it is what it is like let's just do it i mean the thing to like especially as it relates to bachowski's a little beside the point but i mean he had been sort of um you know people had scouts had concerned that he was going to end up a reliever since his college days. I mean, and especially after he got drafted. So that wasn't like a revelation. Like that was a saga like

four years in the making. Taylor Clark is maybe not all that dissimilar in that regard. But it does seem like it's really working for him. He's a competitor. And I know all guys sort of exhibit their drive or their desire differently. You look at Taylor Clark's face when he's out there and there's no mistake of like what he's trying to do to you. I mean, yeah. And I like that. I really like that about him. I don't know that it matters, but I like it. I felt like Andrew Chaffin was maybe a little similar in that sense, but like Clark is out there to compete and has looked pretty good. As you mentioned, I mean, one swing of the bat really accounts for half of his earn to run so far this year. But I feel pretty good about him. And one of the things I really,

really like is that you can get more than three outs out of Taylor Clark. You don't have to, it's not like he can only face three batters and you got to get him out of there. I mean, if the first inning goes smooth, you run them out there for a second one. You know, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if he goes more than two innings at some point this year in a relief role. So it really affords them some luxuries, considering how beat up the rest of the pen has been, considering how much you didn't want to have to expose some guys. Clark being able to go out and suck up more than three outs, gives Tori Lavello some cushion there to help protect

and sort of deploy guys when and where he wants later on. He might not be the most electric arm they have back there, although he's encroaching on that territory, but I think he's probably the most valuable like cog in the in the gears you know i mean he's he really really affords tories i'll say that yeah yeah no absolutely it's been it's been fun watching taylor clark make that transition um beyond taylor clark you mentioned j buchascus of course we both of us went bonkers today when with the news of buchowski's finally being called up uh onto the major league roster

Tori sort of pulled on my on my cords a little bit today with potentially bringing in J.B. Buchowski's he was warming up in the bullpen at some point. I know both of us sort of stop what we were doing and instantly got in front of the in front of our screens in order to watch that. But unfortunately, it didn't go down today, but should be should go down here pretty soon. And the exciting thing, Jeff, is I don't think they're going to send Buchascus back down. I think once they see what this guy can do at the major league level, you know, you're starting his service clock. I think at this point he's probably here to stay. And someone earlier today on Twitter asked me, you know, is he going to slot in as the closer? And probably not on day one. It'll probably take him a little while for, you know, for him to just build up some trust.

And probably wouldn't be a great move on Tori's part either to insert him as the closer in his first major league outing. But we will certainly, certainly be excited to see what Buchascus brings to the table here in short order. Beyond this, this bullpen, which has been okay, not bad, Ginkl's been okay. Yohan Lopez has looked maybe a little better this year. I think the Diamondbacks in terms of the bullpen have probably been better than I expected, especially in the absence of the many guys we talked about who have not been able to play so far to start the year. I think things have been pretty good there. But switching over to the position player side here for a moment.

Something that you brought up earlier today, Jeff, that I thought was really interesting was that this lineup has a lot of versatility. You think about Eduardo Escobar, the fact that he can play third and second. The Diamondbacks have definitely taken advantage of that. His Drewbel Cabrera has moved around a lot. He's been playing first lately, a lot of first base in the absence of Christian Walker. Pavin Smith found himself in seven. center field yesterday after Tim McAstrou got hurt for better or worse.

Pavin saw some time out there. Kutel Marte, of course, when he's healthy, the whole second base center field thing, he's got going on. Josh Rojas is a big time utility guy. And this is something that in the past, the Diamondbacks haven't really had a whole lot of. And it's sort of fun. It's sort of refreshing. You know, you go to see the lineup card every day for the Diamondbacks, and you never really

know what you're going to get now, Jeff. because this team just has a lot of weapons that they can insert into a lot of different roles. And it, yeah, it just keeps things more interesting for fans on one hand. You never really know what the lineup is going to look like. And on another hand, it just gives Tori Lavello a lot of flexibility and making sure that he's able to use, you know, his best players day in and day out because those players are able to play so many positions. Yeah, I agree.

It's a huge benefit that they haven't had. for a really long time. It was something I dug into during my time writing at the athletic about just kind of comparing the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks in that regard. And it was one of the ways the Dodgers just, they never gave away at bats. They never had to give it bats to poor players. They just were never in that position. They could just rearrange the deck chairs and, you know, keep their guys in the game.

And the Diamondbacks have sort of a, you know, lighter version of that on their hands right now. I'm not sure. You know, that Josh Rojas is Chris Taylor. But at the same time, like the principal sticks. And I think it's a big asset for Tori Lavello to have on a daily basis, especially the way the injuries have settled in. Like, let's just call it what it is. I mean, it's been really unfortunate.

I mean, they lost a lot of guys have missed time already. And the fact that they are where they are is, and that's really not where they want to be, but they are where they are, you know, partly due to the fact that they have been able to cover for the absences fairly well. It hasn't always looked real good. I mean, Rojas at short was an adventure. Andrew Young had a few balls hit to him and left field the other day that were also entertaining before he got his own sort of frontier justice by hitting a grand slam zone.

Yeah. So it hasn't always really worked super well, but the options are there. You can sort of see the blueprint. Like, what if the guys on the roster are just a little higher caliber of players, we still have the same flexibility. Like, the idea is working. They just don't maybe quite have all of the best guys to execute it just yet. But yeah, it's probably save them to a greater degree than we let on

because they've just been bitten so hard by the injury bug. Yeah, for sure. Sticking with the position player side here, John Jehant on Twitter said, it seems like another year of an above average amount of soft and weak contact. I don't watch many other teams, but it seems like the debacks hit incredibly weak infield grounders at a very high level. Is this a coaching issue or just bad at bats by the players?

I think it's probably a fair observation, especially dating back in the last season and some of the struggles we saw there. It seemed like a lot of guys, you know, putting the ball in play, but not necessarily with a whole lot of purpose behind their approach or their swing. I know David Peralta is maybe a guy

who comes up here in terms of hitting a lot of balls on the ground, which I know, Jeff, you could probably talk about for quite a while. But yeah, I think it's certainly, I don't know if you can really put the diamond backs like their whole roster and a box and say that this is something they as a team do. I think it's, you know, you can very much break this down on a player by player level. And I think the Diamondbacks do sort of happen to have a lot of players who just kind of are generally like that.

Like a David Peralta, who as I mentioned, a lot of balls on the ground. There's guys like Eduardo Escobar who have a tendency to hit, to swing at way too many pitches up in the zone. You wind up with a lot of swings and misses and a lot of lazy pop-ups. a lot of lazy opposite field fly balls from Eduardo Escobar. So I don't know if I would put the diamond backs in a box as a hole here and say that this is on the coaches or anything like that. But it does seem, Jeff, that there are a lot of players on this team who maybe need to rethink their approach

or just sort of understand a little bit better the types of holes that they fall into as hitters. Yeah, and it's a matter of sort of who's taking the abats. too. I mean, Tim Lecastro has the second most played appearances on the team. You know, had the second most heading into today's game. I would assume David Peralta's overtaken him there. But Tim LaCastro is not a guy you're betting on to make a ton of hard contact. So that's going to drag sort of the average down. I mean, Josh Rojas has had his troubles and his, despite what he did the spring, I mean, his track record is what it is. I mean, that's

also not going to get you real excited. You know, it's just, it's a bit of, you know, Stephen Vote has played quite a bit. It just is a lot of, a lot of plate appearances to guys that you probably also wouldn't like, you know, hit your wagon to in terms of like, I hope this guy hits the ball really hard. So some of these things probably go away as they get healthier.

But yeah, it is, it is concerning nevertheless, but I do think we see an improvement there over time. Did you want to talk about David Peralta real quick? Yes. He just hits the ball on the ground so much. It's very frustrating.

Yeah, it's, it's, it is a sort of a thing for me. Partly because I love David Peralta, partly because he has such a simple swing and he generates such massive power from it. Yeah. He hits the ball hard, you know, frequently enough. He just does it on the ground a lot. And when he, you know, lifts the ball. a lot of times it goes to the opposite field,

it becomes kind of a lazy fly ball that's really easily caught out. So, David, if you could pull the ball in the air a little more, I would be ever so appreciative because I know that you hit the crap out of it a lot. So just do it in the air. Yeah, it's puzzling. You go back to 2018,

and I think that was Peralta's Silver Slugger year. He hit 30 home runs, just sort of out of nowhere. But I don't think he's ever hit more than 17 in a season outside of that, which obviously he's had his issues with durability. And it seems like every year he's got some sort of injury issue going on, which I'm sure is played into that. But yeah, whatever he was doing in 2018,

we would love to see David Peralta try to get some more loft in his swing and maybe try to write that ship a little bit. And Eduardo Escobar is really the other guy here that comes to mind, which we should also talk about Eduardo, not for his struggles, but because he's been one of the Diamondbacks better hitters. here to start the season six home runs already. And, you know, in 16 games after last season over the whole season, he only hit four homers. Obviously, it was a shortened season, but still, you know, he played something like 52 or 54 games, something like that.

So he's looked really good for the diamond back so far. And I know watching some of his at bats in spring training had both of us a little concerned. It looked like he was going more in the wrong direction. you know, swinging at pitches up in the zone, which you've seen time and time again, is just not where Eduardo Escobar is going to succeed. But things have looked a lot better for him so far this year, Jeff. Started to see especially lately,

it seems like his at-bats are getting better too. He's not just hacking, but he's also starting to take more pitches and have longer at bats. So, yeah, Eduardo Escobar, maybe he's starting to show some signs here of getting back on track and being more like his 2019 self.

Yeah, I mean, his happy zone is definitely like, you know, kind of middle and down. And boy, we have just watched him repeatedly chase, you know, high heat and it has not worked out for him. It's a lot of pop-ups. It's a lot of whiffs. It's not good. But he has sort of locked himself back in. I think he's on pace for 58 home runs. Please hit me up on Twitter if anyone wants to make a bet.

No, I'm really happy. side of the better are you taking jeff it depends on uh what the terms are um no i i it's been great uh he was that guy i i feel like a broken record we set it all off season if the team's gonna have a chance if we're gonna stick around he's got to produce uh well yeah so far so good um he really has delivered in some big moments um and he just he has that sort of infectious personality i feel like when he's going good, he's happy, guys are happy, everyone's like having a good old time, including those of us watching from home. So I'm just hoping he kind of keeps it up. He's looked pretty locked in for the most part. And I really do think a lot of it just

continues to come down to pitch selection. It's what he chooses to swing at. And when he's selective and, you know, is putting the bat on the ball in the, you know, with the, you know, with the pitches that he should be swinging at the ones that have historically produced well for him. You know, I like his, I like his odds. I'm not going to say that he's, you know, probably an all-star this year, or an MVP candidate or anything like that. But he's an absolutely, he can be who he's supposed to be. He can be a solid everyday contributor.

And that's what he really needs to be. He's been a little more than that lately. We'll take the extra. There's no problem there. but yeah really looking forward to seeing if he can continue to carry this because they're they can't really there's no room to let up so he's going to need to keep doing it and bring some of his teammates along with him another guy who's really impressed so far from the position player side of things is Carson Kelly who is yeah really a big question mark

after last season it looked like he'd taken just a big step backwards is it bats just didn't look nearly as substantive as they did the year prior. But this year so far, somehow Carson Kelly went all of last season drawing only six walks. And this season, he's already drawn 10. Or I think it was either nine or 10, one of those two. I'm getting my numbers mixed up. But suffice it to say, his at-bats, his approach has been a lot better. And he's even gotten into some power as well, too.

He hit another home run today, which I believe was his fourth of the season. and he's an important player for this team moving forward, not just because, of course, he was one of the main pieces coming back in the Paul Goldschmidt trade, which inherently for some reason seems to just breed all sorts of pressure onto both he and Luke Weaver. But he's also, you know, he's really the future catcher of this team

in the long term. And if Carson Kelly can not only be the solid defensive presence that he is behind home plate, but if he can continue to produce like this offensively, that would be a huge gain for the Diamondbacks. Yeah. Yeah, it really would be. He is, the thing that has impressed me the most about him

is the quality of his abats. You know, we talked a bit before we started recording that I really feel like he's just seen the baseball in extremely well right now. He takes close pitches that are off the plate by just the slimmest of margins. And he really seems to have a great awareness for what the strike zone is on any given day.

I know he gets that benefit from, you know, sitting behind the plate when he's not hitting. But as a hitter, he really seems to, you know, have it dialed in as to where he wants the ball, where he's willing to swing, what he's willing to lay off. And sometimes that close pitch gets called a strike. And I've seen that happen to him too. But you live to fight another day.

I mean, you know, a strikeout. it's really not any different than a pop-up or, you know, a wheat ground ball. So he seems to know what he wants and he's putting the bat on the ball, that's for sure. Like you said, he's taking the walks. He's getting on base. You know, some guys, you know, find their form come mid-season. Some guys find it early. And I feel like Carson Kelly has found it early.

I don't know if he can continue to write it, you know, for the duration of the season. I really hope he can. I think it's a huge boost. because it really stretches out the lineup, especially now that it's as weak as it is. So without Cateau-Marté in there, without Christian Walker in there, right now they're having to give Cool Calhoun

every other day off or thereabouts. You know, you need another bat in there that you can count on. And Carson Kelly is really delivered. And on top of that, he still remains like a pretty good defensive catcher as well. So, you know, he might arguably be team MVP right now. Yeah, no, I don't think that's crazy to say that at all. Another thing here, sort of a fun question from Sunny Moon on Twitter. Of the young DBAX position players, who has impressed you the most so far,

talking specifically about players who have been in the big leagues for less than two years, which dramatically narrows the group that we have to choose from. Um, it hard, hard to say, I'll start this one off. I'll go with Andrew Young, of course, formerly known as Andy Young. He must have, he must have changed that recently. I don't remember him being called Andrew before. Um, but Andrew, Andrew Young, it always seems to put together a pretty, somewhat qualitative at bat.

Um, it seems to have a pretty decent approach up there. There was, of course, the big grand slam the other day, which was really fun to watch for him. Uh, he's a guy, Jeff, that I really want to see. get a little bit more playing time, especially at the plate, just whether it be with pinch hit opportunities or whatnot. But he's a guy who I, every time he comes up, I just, I don't know what it is. He had some dramatic moments in his first year last season. And for some reason, I sort of associate Andrew Young with those more dramatic moments now. So I always enjoy watching him when he when he comes up to the plate.

Jeff, what about you? Yeah, that's a good, that's a good selection. I'm with you in that I do always sort of feel like he might be about to do damage, like every time he steps in. So I like that one. I'll go just a slightly different direction. I have been pretty impressed with Pavin Smith. He has been as advertised.

He's come through in some sort of big spot. He's provided Tori with some really valuable defensive, you know, flexibility. Not that he's a tremendous center fielder by any beans, but the fact that he can kind of hold his own in the corners, cover first base with real ease, and find a way to put the bat on the ball. I mean, he's everything the scouting report has ever said he would be. Yeah. You know, he doesn't quite have the prototypical first basement power, but he will find the gaps. He will put together good at bats. And while there have been a few times that he's swung, like early encounters there's also been

there have also been plenty that he's really kind of worked well and shown a pretty mature approach for someone with such few major league played appearances under his belt so I don't know what the like ceiling is on him or where I really see him sort of settling in but he's been valuable thus far and he hasn't looked like out of sorts or in over his head if you will so yeah I'll take it yeah yeah no

it'll be fun to, fun to see how his career evolves here over the next few years. We'll finish off here with this one from Ryan McEwen. Biggest baseball pet peeve. This is an interesting one. Ryan says his is basically when, when guys come up hacking, swing right at the first pitch. I think we can all sort of relate to that one.

Jeff, I'll start with you here. Biggest baseball pet peeve. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, I think first of all, I'd never really thought of this before. It's not something I'd probably spend a lot of time thinking about. So it's an interesting question. It's kind of, you know, two things for me.

I think the first one that came to mind immediately was batters that have way too long of like pre-at-bat rituals or like between pitches, right? like yeah have to like basically take the gloves off untie your shoes like the whole nine yards um that that one kind of gets me um but i think the one if i'm going to keep it kind of game related then it would be um you know having a poor approach um with like less than two outs and runners on base is just that one just gets me um it's really tough whether it's an early hack or like really expanding the zone um trying to do too much I mean, I think those times when you have a chance to do damage don't come around that often, especially for hitters that bat like further down in the lineup.

And so if you can get it, you know, if you get the circumstances to where, you know, you're in that position to try to produce a run. Like I think there's something to be said for having sort of a, you know, I don't know, being an RBI guy is what I would call it, but having sort of an approach for trying to, you know, make some quality contact. you know in that kind of situation so when guys don't exhibit that that would that kind of bothers me yeah yeah i i totally resonate with your uh pre pre at bat ritual thing there are some guys who's you know they're like pre at bat ritual is so iconic that it's like something that kids at home know

too i remember ryan howard like the classic like spit into his glove and rub it around and then just his whole his whole deal a lot of the lot of the the great hitters in the game sort of have you know something like that that somehow sets them apart when at the end of the day what they're really known for is actually hitting not just doing random things before they hit um so yeah very odd sort of baseball quirk um another odd baseball quirk that i know when you know when i ever bring people to a baseball game who maybe aren't quite as well versed in how things work something that they're often puzzled by is pickoff throws to first base. And, you know, it makes sense.

You've got a guy over there who's super fast. You know, you've got a Nick Heath type, you know, to stay on topic with Diamondback's new center fielder acquisition, who went three for four today. Played really well. You know, if you've got a guy who's speedy on first base, it makes sense. But a lot of times you'll see, especially relievers or starters as well. when they're in a particularly stressful moment and you can tell they're just sort of frozen and just don't really want to throw the pitch.

Or maybe they had a miscommunication with the catcher or whatever it was. But it's always funny when they throw to first base and you look over and it's the catcher or someone who's literally never stolen a base in their 18 year career standing at first base and they probably don't even have to dive in order to get back in.

I always thought that was sort of a bizarre quirk. And frankly, I think there's also a valid question of like, do you really, you know, decrease the chances of someone stealing a base on you by throwing over to first base, you know, just with such regularity as a lot of guys do. So, yeah, that would, that would probably be the one that comes to mind for me. Nice. Yeah. I agree. It's, it is always pretty funny when they throw over on the, on the opposing catcher of the giant first baseman. I'm like, yeah, did you just not get the sign? Did this sort of mix up? Do you just really not want to deliver the ball to home plate right now? Are you just trying

to mentally recite yourself? Because if it isn't for any of that, then I don't know what you're doing. Yeah, yeah, exactly, pretty much. All right, well, we have several other questions that sadly we don't have the time to get to here in this episode. We'll do our best follow up on Twitter, give our answers over there. But thank you to everyone who submitted questions today. We had somehow, Jeff, we had quite a number of them today, which is kind of fun. Yes. So yeah, thank you to everyone for contributing on that front. That is all that we have here for episode 27 of the Rattle Podcast.

As always, be sure to give us a follow on Twitter. You can find our combined the Rattle page that's at the Rattle AZ, where you can find all of our shows and articles and whatnot. And then you also be sure to follow each of us individually. You can find me on Twitter at Jesse and Friedman. You can find Jeff at Outfield Grass 24. And also, I want to give a shout out to Joshua Inman, our third very faithful writer. He's done a lot of great work recently on the website.

You can find him at Roof and Panels Open on Twitter. We've got to get Joshua as many followers on Twitter as we can because, frankly, he puts out some really, really good stuff that does not get seen by enough people. So be sure to give our friend Joshua follow over on Twitter as well. But for Jeff, my name is Jesse Friedman. Thanks so much for joining us here today. It'll be back again soon to talk more about the 2021 Arizona Diamondbacks.