PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ep. 28: An Unprecedented April Surge

Episode Date: May 4, 2021

We discuss the details surrounding the D-backs' surprising 15-13 start to the season. Is Carson Kelly's breakout for real? Is Madison Bumgarner "back?" With Torey Lovullo notching his 300th career win with the D-backs, how do we view his tenure in the desert? We talked these questions and many more. (Jesse mistakenly called this episode Episode 27 in the intro -- he meant Episode 28.) 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-hosts. Jeff, this team is kind of fun. 15 and 13 here as we record on the evening of Monday, May 3rd. The Diamondbacks have an off day today. They're getting set to start a set with the Miami Marlins here tomorrow evening. But Jeff, coming off a series win over the, albeit not, particularly great Colorado Rockies, but a series win is a series win nonetheless.

This team is 15 and 13. They're literally one game behind the loss column or in the lost column, I should say, behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, which, you know, we're more than a month into the season, Jeff. This is pretty crazy. Man, I did, yeah, I did, you know, I was on Twitter here recently and put some numbers up around the amount of games and time lost. for like key contributing players to the injured list.

And as I was like compiling all of that, I just was astonishing to me that this team could be at or above 500. And I don't even care that they've played the Rockies, you know, a handful of times. It's just like, man, the fact that they've done what they've done while being so short-handed has been kind of miraculous. And also, you're right, just totally fun to watch. Yeah, I think we were both, we were both very much on the same page a few minutes ago before we started

recording that you sort of have to take the 15 and 13 with a grain of salt because the diamond backs haven't played the Dodgers yet, nor have they played the Giants actually, who maybe were still a little skeptical, you know, how good they really are in reality. But nonetheless, you know, you probably have to sort of take that into your calculus when you're thinking about how good this team really is. But on the other hand, they've only played 11 home games so far, even after coming off this homestand. Now they're ready to hit the road again.

So in one sense, I guess the record maybe could be actually somewhat genuine. But beyond that, Jeff, let's get into some specifics here. I think to me, Jeff, the clear reason that the Diamondbacks are able to be where they are more than anything. If we have to pick one player, I think that player for me is probably Carson Kelly. He's basically been the driving force of this offense. Pretty much every day he's in the lineup.

Tori Lavello has shifted him from the lineup. He hits in the two hole most days that he's in the lineup. We still see Stephen vote from time to time at a really good game yesterday. So Carson is not necessarily a true everyday guy just yet being a catcher. But this guy has come out, Jeff, but just look like a totally different hitter than who we saw last season. We have a question from Kyle Collins on Twitter regarding Carson Kelly. We might as well hit that right now.

He says this resurgence of Carson Kelly has been incredibly satisfying to watch following the goalie trade. How is sustainable for Carson is this? What do you think the season in the long run looks like for him? And Jeff, to me, I don't see, you know, like is he going to have an OPS of over 1,100 the whole season? probably not. But I wouldn't say that it seems to me like he's gotten super lucky or this has really felt like a pretty a pretty genuine breakout through and through. He just seems very comfortable, very confident up at the plate. His walk rate is through the roof right now. Is this, is this legit, Jeff? Because he has, he has been incredible for the diamond back so far.

Yeah, he really has. I mean, he's carried them at times. And, you know, we knew coming in. I mean, we could rewind the tape, you know, three months. And we knew that there were going to have to be a guy or two to kind of step up. And I think maybe more than a guy or two has. But Carson Kelly obviously leads away. Yeah, I mean, I don't think, I mean, I think your point is well taken. And he's obviously not going to keep doing exactly what he's doing. But at the same time, he isn't running like an absurd hard hit rate.

I mean, it's high, but it's not absurd. He's actually posted one slightly higher before. He is not striking out and walking a ton. That is very helpful for him. But he's also hitting more fly balls and not like in an extreme way, but he's like hitting more fly balls, which we think more fly balls, that's good. He's pulling the ball a good amount. And so pull the ball and put it in the air, hey, that's a good recipe.

And hit it hard. I mean, those things work. his ability to continue to do that, you know, I think, you know, pitchers will probably start making some adjustments. I think we really were to like hone in on some of the balls he's hit out. He's, he's smashed some mistakes. Totally. He's gotten some meatballs and like hit them all the way back into the kitchen. So I just, you know, those things are still going to happen.

Like, those things will still happen. And if people don't want to pitch him aggressively, he will take his free base. So I think it comes back to Earth. But like, there's some real skill here. This isn't a guy who's just getting lucky. Yeah, you look at the catcher position from last year to this year. I'm looking at the numbers right now. Carson Kelly last year had five home runs.

Stephen Vote had one home run. Carson Kelly had just over 220. Stephen Vote hit a buck 67 last year. You flip the page to this year and Stephen Vote has three home runs with an OPS up over 800. Carson Kelly, as I mentioned, an OPS up over 1100 with six home runs. They already have like well outdone their production from a full 60 game last season, or a full 60 game season last year, which is just mind boggling to think about. I know everyone wants to know when is Catea coming back.

That seemed to be a frequent thing that. people were interested in hearing about in our, uh, the questions that we got from, from all of our listeners. Um, unfortunately, uh, we don't have a crystal ball and we, we don't really know, uh, anything beyond what you're going to hear, you know, from Steve Gilbert, Nick Picoro, Zach Buchanan, those kind of guys are, are certainly going to give you the information when they have it. Um, but it sounds like the latest that we've heard from them is that, you know, Kattel is certainly on his way back, but has not seemed to take any significant steps in doing so. Um, on the.

injury front, Jeff, it seems like, you know, two steps forward, one step back. Cole Calhoun returned from the injured list and then several days later, back on the injured list. Now, he had a surgery on his hamstring, which I believe happened is he stole third base in a game a few days ago. And now he is on the shelf for supposedly about six to eight weeks. And so this just keeps hindering this team just up and down the injuries like you mentioned earlier in the show have just been absolutely crazy. But I think what it's done is it's given Tori Lavello the opportunity to plug in some of these younger players that we just don't know that much about yet. You know, Pavin Smith and Josh Van Meter and, you know, Andrew Young a little bit, Josh Rojas.

There's just a lot of guys on this Diamondbacks team that, you know, we don't necessarily think they're going to be superstars, but we don't really know what they are yet. And so out of that group, I think for me, Jeff, Pavin Smith is a guy who is really stepped in, stepped into a role nicely. One of the few guys who you'll see play first base and lead off on like an everyday basis in the lineup, which I think has been pretty amusing. But yeah, what do you think about Pave and Jeff? I know I think one of our listeners was curious about that. Yeah, I really like it. I mean, we sort of started to touch on him in the last episode.

And ever since then, all he's done is just like keep hitting. it's it's a really you know it's it's a profile that again just kind of like isn't the sexy first base profile um and it never was i mean that was the knock on him coming out of virginia that was a knock on him after he was drafted and turned pro um but it like still works and the fact that they're able to run him out into the outfield um helps and i just want to say for the record that watching Paven Smith, the outfielder, has been so much better than I would have ever anticipated. Like, he doesn't take, like, bad routes.

He looks confident. There's a time or two where his first step hasn't been great, but, you know, he makes the plays that he should make. I don't know that he's going to, you know, light the world on fire with, you know, Byron Buckson, like plays out there. but he doesn't really need to. He just needs to hold the fort down,

and he's doing a really good job of that. And then what you get at the play from him is just like, you know, it's just like extra gravy. Like it's a pretty mature approach. I mean, he has been aggressive at times. I'm surprised he hasn't walked a little more because traditionally he would walk a, you know, a good bit. But, you know, it doesn't strike out much.

He puts a ball in play and he's been able to hit the ball pretty hard. So I don't. know. I mean, there's coming into the season, things have, you know, turned out about as well as you could hope for Pavin Smith. And I think the one other nuance that's really helping him is something that you mentioned. He's getting to play a lot. It's not one night he gets three at bats and then gets pinch hit four and doesn't play for three days and then it gets a pinch hit opportunity. No, he's in there. I think he's like third on the team and played appearances or at bats. He's getting his reps and he's making the most of them.

And it's, you know, it's not a, I don't think it's a superstar profile, but I think it's the kind of guy that does a bunch of stuff for your team. And like long term, man, Toro Lavelle, it just has to be super excited because now he's got a guy that he can stick all over the outfield. He can play him at first base if he needs to. He gets that platoon bat. it's a lefty bat with enough sort of all fields power to at least be somewhat dangerous. It's a nifty little package.

These are the kinds of guys that help teams win. Yeah, the question from our listeners that I was thinking of was from at AZ Axel, who said, who has been a more pleasant surprise, Pavin Smith of the D-Backs win celebration post slash dances that they post after every game? What do you think, Jeff? Um, yeah, given my dancing ability, I'll go with Pavin Smith. Yeah, it was a good one. It was an especially good one after the win yesterday. Tori Lavello notching his 300th win. I think as Drewbel Cabrera had like a pool floaty around his waist.

It was, it was amusing. Yes, that was spectacular. But I've started to realize that, you know, for the first few days, you know, there was enough space between watching one video to the next that I would forget, like, the song that they were dancing to the first time around. And now I've finally put it together that I'm pretty sure they dance the exact same song every single time. And they do the exact same dance every single time. So maybe it's not the most original, the most original performance day in and day out. But we certainly love to see them having fun. That's a story in itself, though, Jeff. Tori Lavello, 300 wins in his diamond back. career as of yesterday, I think his total record is 300274, which all things considered, I mean, it's sort of, you know, when you pull together that many seasons of even just one baseball franchise, you feel like you've, you've just got so many variables in there that it's really hard to, you know, nail down exactly how effective the manager in and of himself has been throughout those years. But it's been a pretty nifty tenure for Tori Lavello since

2017. Obviously, last year, a little bit of a disappointment. Year before that, they won 85 games and things seemed to be kind of looking up. Of course, 2017 is the year we're all going to remember. He's been a pretty good manager for the Diamondbacks over these four years. You said 300274? Yep. So he's 26 games as a manager over 500 for a team that, let's just like call it what it is, is like a very often overlooked baseball team.

True. I mean, with what he's had to work with, some of their self-imposed limitations, injuries, a really goofy 2020 season for everybody. Man, that's a nice run for Toro Lavello. Like, that's a really nice run. I know there are some things that could be better.

There are some times where, lo and behold, you know, a starter who's kind of starting to run a little low on gas, gets asked to face the lineup for a third time and things maybe fall apart. Or he's, you know, a batter late and going to the bullpen. Man, that's pretty good, though. Because I think, I think Tori Lavello can still be better as a manager. And I think he knows that.

He's talked about that. There are still things he's trying to do better. Congratulations, Tori. That's a, that's an achievement. Like that's a, that's quite an achievement, you know, when you take in all the context. Well, granted, without the Rattle Podcast, he probably wouldn't have a win above, you know, 297, maybe 298. I think we're worth at least a couple.

But no, nonetheless. 303, I don't know. Yeah, maybe it'd be better off. We're sorry, Tori, if that's the case. But nonetheless, yeah, I think it was a milestone that really came out of nowhere. I really had no idea he was coming up on 300 wins, but sort of a big day for the Diamondbacks manager. And yeah, you mentioned, Jeff, that he's been, you know, trying to kind of hone his craft still.

Of course, a manager is, you know, any of us and any of our jobs, the things we do from day to day, you're at least hopefully always trying to improve. And this year, Tori has been pretty vocal about changing his approach a little bit. He talked earlier in the season about trying to have. more of a Tampa Bay raise, Oakland athletic sort of mindset where, you know, the Diamondbacks, I don't think you're going to start using openers anytime soon necessarily. But just the mindset of really trying to use all 26 guys on the roster. This is kind of a storyline I've heard about quite a bit lately from some different outlets. And I think it's a good thing to point out.

We've seen, we've seen Tori this year, Jeff, I think pinch hit more than I've ever noticed. he's usually been a guy who will stick with his starters throughout the game. And, you know, in the seventh, eighth or ninth innings, you know, you're scratching your head when the tough lefty comes in and Jake Lamb is still for some reason taking the at bat. But this season, it seems like he's taking a different approach with this roster where, you know, he's willing to, you know, not necessarily bat Nick Ahmed in his, you know, fourth or fifth plate appearance or, you know, to try to play the matchups game a little bit more. And I think that's helped the Diamondbacks really well in these games so far. They don't have, you know, a whole lot of superstar level players. And they're going to, you know, they're going to be at their best when they're kind of mixing and matching things. And I think Tori's done a pretty good job of that so far.

Yeah, I completely agree. I think he hasn't left a whole lot on the table, which I think, you know, is maybe kind of obvious considering he's playing a lot of nights. It's like, you know, a B level lineup sometimes, you know, top to bottom where you're like, oh, boy, it really falls off. And then, you know, guys are coming through, you know, putting together good at bats and getting, you know, big hits and key situations like Stephen Vote yesterday. Yeah, it's nice to see. And I sort of wonder if the 26th, the roster spot, you know, for, especially in the

National League, makes such a big difference. you know it just gives you that extra that extra piece that extra batter and someone that maybe just that extra little bit of breathing room helps him feel better like he can go ahead and use that I would be interested to know so it's just more of amusing but thinking about also like the the overtime style you know that we're seeing now in extra innings of the runner starting the second you know just being able to be a little more aggressive because you don't think that, hey, you know, if we do get tied up, if we do go to extras, we're probably going to play like 10 or 11 innings and not 17.

So that'd be something that that'd be just a question for me, but your point is well taken. He's done a nice job of using everybody, and he's kind of had to. But, you know, people have made a lot of mention on the fact that he will pinch it for Nick Ahmed. He will pinch it for David Baralta, which is saying a lot. Yeah. And he kind of has to be willing to do that right now. They have no ground to give.

They have no room for error in terms of like they've got to put the best person at the play in the key moment that they can. They just, they don't have enough leeway with the rosters depleted as it is. We got a question from Jonathan about Josh Rojas. I think you, you know, talking about the guys that Tori is kind of, you know, used in different moments when he felt, you know,

it made sense given matchups or whatnot. And Rojas is certainly a guy who fits well into a role like that because he plays really all over the field. And given, you know, the continued injury struggles with Catel-Marté, now Cole Calhoun, you figure Josh Rojas will certainly find his way into the lineup pretty frequently here. So yeah, Jonathan wants to know how much should we look into this latest surge here by Josh Rojas?

Jeff, what do you think? Is this legit? Is this, you know, just maybe kind of things balance? out after a really rough start to the season. Maybe this was sort of bound to happen. What have you seen from Rojas so far? You know, this is a tough one for me. I'm actually about 20 minutes removed from a conversation

with one of our listeners, Matt Steele, about Josh Rojas. Because I feel like I bring a lot of bias to my viewing of Josh Rojas. I think on one hand that he's a guy that was kind of due. He'd had an awful, miserable start. to the season. I think he was clearly better than that. At the same time, I've always viewed him as a guy that doesn't have a defensive home, which I think still is pretty much true.

Yeah. He's made some really great-looking plays that shouldn't have had to be that difficult if maybe a more regular defender made them in the first place. Sure. But, you know, one thing that's made me sort of step back and rethink this is, listening to Kevin Goldstein at Fangraphs now, his podcast recently and, you know, hear him talk about Josh Rojas

and how Josh Rojas was kind of the guy that almost hung up the Zach Granky trade. The Rojas was the guy that the Astros didn't want to include in the deal. And that, you know, a guy like Goldstein, who was a scouting director for a long time for a very successful organization, just, you know, still believe,

in the bat still believes in the ability to hit, thinks there's still kind of some sneaky pop in there. And I'll be honest, like a lot of nights, like I just, I don't see it. But I recognize that Kevin Goldstein's probably a lot better at evaluating professional baseball players than I am. So it's a long way of saying, I'm not entirely sure. I think there's probably a little bit of staying power here. I still don't think he's any sort of superstar. I still think he's a bench player. But, you know, now's the time for him to sort of make a name for himself. I mean, he's got the opportunity.

Enough guys are out. This is really the time to do it. I'm glad he's finding his stride because he started off the season so miserably after a red hot spring. So we'll just have to kind of wait and see. I'd really like to see him just like settle into like some normal mode of production rather than red hot or ice cold. Yeah, yeah.

No, I think that's a great point as far as Rojas is concerned. Speaking of Matt Steele, long time friend of the show, he was curious, just sort of in general, outside of the veterans who are playing well, do any of the younger guys show signs of skills gross? Or is this more just about a hot streak? Mainly wondering about position players like Rojas, Carson Kelly, Andrew Young, Tim LaCastro, Pavin Smith, and so on. We've touched on a number of those names already.

So I guess we've sort of given our thoughts on some of those guys. Andrew Young, Jeff is a guy who sticks out to me. Unfortunately, he was sort of the odd man out today along with Nick Heath

when the Diamondbacks brought back La Castro and Christian Walker from the injured list. But this guy, I mean, that home run that he hit the other day against the Rockies,

there are not that many guys who can take a fastball high in a way. Like, that pitch might not have even been a strike. and it was sort of the Fernando Tatis moment of like, how on earth did you hit that ball? Like, how did you hit it? And on top of that, how did you hit it over the fence? And Andrew Young has sort of done that multiple times now where he doesn't just hit mistakes.

He actually hits pitches that are pretty darn good. And I kind of wonder if there's something to that. Unfortunately, the issue for him sort of, I guess, like Roe-Haw, is that positionally, things are a little bit confusing for Andrew Young. He's had some rough outings at third base this year. I don't know if he's much of an outfielder. I don't know if he has the hands for second base. So it's just sort of a struggle finding room for Andrew Young to play.

And I think that's why he's been stuck in kind of the designated pinch hitter role almost every time he's been called up to the major leagues. But so far, I mean, it's hard to argue with the numbers. If you look at Andrew Young's career statistics, and granted, it is an extraordinarily small sample size. So you really can, you really have to kind of take this with a grain of salt. But his career OPS in 35 at Bats is actually 1066. And normally that's not the kind of guy that, you know, you're sending down because your fourth outfielder just got back from the injured list. So obviously, again, such an incredibly small sample.

I think it's like 47 plate appearances. So I don't know how much we can really read into that. But some of these swings that he's put on balls, I mean, he had a home run in Cincinnati that was 116 miles per hour off the bat. So I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least intrigued by him. And on top of that, he's listed at 6 foot 200 pounds.

You know, I don't know, maybe he is 6 foot, but he might also be like 511 and like 190. Probably. he's not a big guy and he hits big guy homers. Yeah. And one of my favorite things about Andrew Young is that he can go out to like every part of the park. Yeah. I mean, if you put one like on the outer third, like he can punch it up opposite field, you know, six, seven, eight, ten rows deep.

Or if you want to come up and out on him and he turns on it, I mean, it's going to be a mammoth home run. Yeah, it's it's really unfortunate. Him and Josh Rojas are very, very similar. Andrew Young is, looks like about five weeks older, perhaps, maybe six weeks older. But, you know, Rojas is probably the better defender of the two. Young really can't field the ball very well at all. You know, it's just, it's an unfortunate situation. It's a really tough place to be to not have a defensive home.

And I know the draft is still like two weeks away. But minor league season baseball is getting ready to get started. And you'll see that and hear that in scouting reports and in write-ups about guys that people just aren't quite sure where they're going to play. It's one thing to be a shortstop and have people say, well, he can play second base or center field. I mean, that's all right. But if you're a second baseman and people are like, I'm not really sure he can play second. second, there's not a whole lot of other places for you to really go that don't just put immense pressure on the bat. So he's in a tough spot.

I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, I wouldn't be totally shocked if he or Rojas, you know, become like trade targets for a contending team if the club should stumble. Because I think there's something there. We also don't know if the D.H is going to come back anytime soon. But man, you could see him getting some like fairly regular DH at bats. Yeah, no, that's a good point. It'll be, I'm sure as the season wears on, eventually we're going to have to talk about the,

the CBA agreement or lack thereof and all of the fun things that are to come over the winter. Other thing I want to get into switching gears over to the pitching side of things, is Madison Bumgarner back? That seems to be the question on a lot of people's minds right now. now. And I don't know if I'm quite ready to, to, you know, nail that in is something I'm, I'm super confident about as ERA is still 558. And I think you could make the same argument with Rojas where, you know, if you start so incredibly bad, even if you're, you know, an average,

below average sort of player, things are probably going to even out for you eventually. But Bumgarner has looked really good for the Diamondbacks. He's, he's won three consecutive starts now, of course, including that game against the Braves when he threw the seven inning, notable accomplishment or whatever they're calling it these days. But he's been effective in three consecutive starts. I know his last time out, he only went five innings after 81 pitches.

Apparently he was a little under the weather in that outing against the Rockies. So Tori decided to pull him a little bit sooner. But out of these three outings, you know, 18 strikeouts, only two walks over 17 innings, altogether. He's only given up six hits. It's pretty hard to argue to argue with those numbers.

So I watched the April 25th start, the notable achievement start, very intently and really kind of tracked his pitches for the rattle, for a written piece of the rattle. If you haven't seen that, you should.

To really get the blueprint on like, how the heck do he do that? Yeah. And I'll tell you, in his April 30th start, his most recent one against Colorado, he was not nearly as accurate, I would say, with his control. Not nearly as accurate.

And yet he still scattered just like four hits, only walked one. He still lived in and around the zone, effective enough. It's up, it's down, it's in, it's out. That was almost more encouraging of a start for me. To see him without being just wildly locked in. Yeah.

To still get the job done. I might have been more impressed, honestly, with that one. So there's a recipe there. I mean, it is what it is, right? It's him just absolutely crowding right-handed batters and just pounding them in and hoping he doesn't leave, you know, much over the plate. and if he can keep from doing that, you know, bury a few curveballs here and there, confuse hitters between whether that's a fastball on the inner third or it's a cutter that's now

off the plate inside and about to break my hands. He keeps those guys uncomfortable like that and it's going to be tough. So, yeah, very, very impressive. Again, I think there's some, there's a plan here. how long teams, you know, opposing hitters will take that plan and let it beat them up is to me the question because I think he's found something that really works, you know, and maybe he found it before, but he's been able to execute it. The question is, are they going to take that away from them?

And if so, how does he counter? Yeah, yeah, it's always a game of adjustments for sure. So I guess stay tuned on that as far as as bum garner is concerned. But yeah, it was encouraging to say the least just to see what Mad Bum has done over his last few outings. And on some level, I feel like we have to take a little bit of credit because in our last show, which was before any of these more positive outings that happened, we were both talking about Bum Garner and how although the, you know, the first few outings of the year were a disaster

in terms of results, I think both of us felt in our last show a couple weeks ago that these problems seem to be fixable, that it seemed to be more of a command issue than a stuff issue, the velocity was back, the cutter, the curveball, things were there. So, yeah, it's good to see that actually kind of turn into results now for the debacks lefty, who of course, the contract is so weird. He's still not hardly making anything this year, and the next year is sort of when the big money starts to kick in. So obviously a really big, a really big factor for the diamond backs moving forward. Moving on from Madbun into the bullpen side of things for the pitching staff for the

diamond backs. Kyle Collins on Twitter sent us a number of questions. Could you rank the debacks bullpen arms currently? Who's the best? Who's the worst? Have we seen anything to be excited about from these guys or another year of disappointing offseason veteran signings? Yeah, I think it's a really good question.

I think we got our wish, Jeff, in the last couple weeks, J.B. Bukowskis finally got the call up. We've sort of been hyping him up on the show. He was everything that we hoped for in his first two appearances, I think. And then he had a bit of a rough outing immediately following that. I still have some hope that Bukakis will turn things around. I still think he's looked pretty good overall. I think the numbers will balance out there over time. Caleb Smith has been actually really, really good in the bullpen

since the Diamondbacks transitioned him into that role. I think he only made one start this year before being moved into that role, which has been really, really good to see. There's something to be said for a left-handed reliever who can really get both lefties and righties out. So Caleb Smith has certainly been a factor for the Diamondbacks. But what do you think, Jeff? As you look at this bullpen, Caleb Smith has been pretty good, like I mentioned, Ginkles,

another guy who's been fairly steady for them. Taylor Clark, I feel like the results have not necessarily been, have been great, but at least the stuff most days seems to look pretty okay. It sort of feels like another Diamondbacks bullpen in some ways where you don't really know exactly what you're going to get. It's not horrible. It's not particularly good. But so far, it hasn't lost.

the diamond backs very many games, which I guess is good, at least in itself. Yeah, no, you're 100% correct. That's probably, if there's a way to take what's happened, that's probably it. When they've lost, it hasn't often been the bullpen's fault. Yeah. That's probably the nicest way to frame it

because compared to other bullpins across baseball, it's still a really bad bullpen. The ERA is high, the strikeouts are low, the walks are very middle of the road, the home run rate is up. It's really not a very good collection of arms. I mean, it just frankly isn't. Yeah.

Getting Chris Devensky back might provide them a little help. He's been shaky, and I think he will continue to be a little shaky, but he does have one really nasty pitch in that change up that he throws that can some days just get him through three back. matters, you know, almost by itself. Yeah.

Caleb Smith has been a nice shot in the arm. But yeah, it's really tough right now. I mean, they are still without Joachim Soraya. They're going to be without Tyler Clipper for a good little while yet. It's just, it's pretty ugly. So I don't know how long they think they can continue to get away with it. You know, they did send Yon Lopez packing, which, you know, felt perhaps a little overdue.

Kevin Ginkle has been really good, but also, I don't know how comfortable you are with that, but I'm not very comfortable. One thing that I think is kind of interesting, and this could come into play as something to adjust to down the line, is teams across baseball, we talked about this before the season started, are going to have to really manage their pitching staffs differently this year because so many guys through so few innings a year ago, there are a few, I think the player that I'm kind of thinking as kind of the buffer for this pitching staff is Taylor Clark.

He's going to make a lot of appearances. He's often going to pitch more than one inning when he comes in. I think we're going to see an absolute ton of Taylor Clark this season. I really wouldn't be surprised. And I think Caleb Samantha is kind of that equivalent from the left side. I think those are two guys that we're going to see a lot of in the fifth, sixth, seventh innings guys that are going to come in and just say, hey, you know, we can't, you know, Mad Bum's only going to throw 81 pitches today.

You know, we're not going to push him to 110. We need him down the road. You know, he's not feeling good today. So I need you to go out and get two or three innings worth out. So that'll be interesting in itself. And I think what that does do is it keeps guys like. Clark and Smith from being able to just come in and, you know, maybe only face two batters. So they're going to see a lot of bulk, a lot of bulk usage, I think, down the road,

which might put some pressure on them to come up with some more guys that can pitch in more of a traditional matchup type role where they're not so concerned about getting the length from them. Yeah. Yeah. Another storyline with the pitching staff that I think we really should hit on here is the Diamondbacks just named Riley Smith, their starter for the game tomorrow night in Miami. And that's notable because Taylor Widener went on the injured list.

I don't know exactly how long he'll be out for. I think Luke Weaver is at least for me, Jeff, certainly a less than steady presence in the rotation. I think there's going to be some things moving around in their rotation. You feel pretty good about Mad Bum, Merrill Kelly, and Zach Gallen staying in there for the long haul. but those last two spots are a little dicey for this team right now. And I don't know about you, Jeff, but I'm not so sure how comfortable I feel with Riley Smith being the long-term answer. When he had an outing a few days ago,

it seemed like I think he was actually had really good results for the first three or four innings. I think he hardly gave up a hit. But he just has almost no swing and miss. I think in his entire outing last time out when he took that spot. start, I believe he got one swinging strike in his entire outing. And that is just obviously quite a reason for concern. He's not a guy who's going to depend on swing and miss. Of course, that's a very viable strategy. You can still be a good starting pitcher and not have a whole lot

of swing and miss in your game. But he basically just through sinkers the entire game. And eventually it felt pretty inevitable that these ground balls are going to start finding holes. He's going to leave a couple of them up that are going to get hit a whole lot further than that. And in fact, that's exactly what happened and he didn't get through the fifth inning. So I think Riley Smith is probably viewed by the team more as a stopgap guy, at least just for tomorrow. They certainly took their time naming him the starter for tomorrow. But moving forward, Jeff, this team is certainly going to need some more help in the rotation.

I know Taylor Widener was good in his outings. start the year, but I think we both have some concerns about the longevity with him as well. So looking forward that things are going to have to move around here, and I'm not so sure who they're going to have fill those gaps. Not either. It gets really tricky when you have three starters that you can kind of rely on, two of which are just okay. One is exceptionally good.

But yeah, that's two more spots that you've got to sort of get, you know, just kind of work your way through and a lot of even really good baseball teams do give some starts throughout the year to guys that are maybe not so ideal. But they are going to really have to rely on Luke Weaver to not, you know, just blow things up. He's going to have to continue to somehow work magic and, you know, avoid complete and total disaster. There are those times when it works and there are those times when it doesn't and they need more of the ones where it does. Yeah, Riley Smith is interesting.

In 10 innings pitched as a start of this year, he struck out two batters, but he's only walked one. Yeah, that's good. That's good. He just kind of let him hit the ball and pray it, you know, pray someone catches it. Yeah, it's just,

it's a really not an ideal situation. And the issue still remains that they don't have a lot of starting pitching, at the very top of the minor league system. So Corbyn Martin is probably, again, still kind of the next guy up. And if there's anything to me, they're probably just sort of delay in the inevitable in how long they can wait to bring, you know, Corbin Martin to the majors just to sort of offset some of these guys who might, for lack of, you know, better term, maybe burn

out a little bit early this year. Yeah, yeah. I think it's only a matter of time. Corby Martin's hopefully going to be with this team at some point. I think we're all pretty curious what he will, what he'll bring to the table. Of course, he was probably the headliner part of that Zach Granke trade.

So we're certainly curious to see what the Diamondbacks have in him. Last thing for for this show here before we finish things off, the minor league baseball season is about to start. And I think we're both pretty excited. We've both got the Hillsborough hops. you. It's a pretty quick trip on the highway away. For me, it's a less quick trip on the highway away. But we're certainly excited to check out some hops games out here in the Pacific Northwest area. But beyond that, just all over the country, the Diamondbacks, certainly with

still one of the better farm systems in the league. I am just beyond excited, Jeff, to finally, we get to do our D-Backs miners tweets again. The world is, the world is getting back to normal with minor league baseball returning, at least in some small respect. And so this is going to be a big year for a lot of the Diamondbacks prospects, the guys that we were paying a whole lot of attention to two years ago, you know, now we finally have numbers to look at every day. We get to sort of check up on them from time to time. So we're really looking forward to that.

But to sort of finish things off with that, Kyle asked us with the minor league, starting in the next week or so. Can we get a brief minor league update? Players to watch who could rise fast, appear in the majors this year, that sort of thing. Jeff, you've always been the sort of Diamondbacks minor league expert of the Rattle podcast.

So I'll pitch this one over to you to start things out. What are you most excited for when you think about the Diamondbacks minor league system here in 2021? I'm super pumped. I think on Thursday I'm going to head out to the ballpark and watch Emerson Hancock pitch for the Everett Aqua Sox The Seattle team

And Julio Rodriguez will be There in the outfield Opposite Corbyn Carroll And hopefully Oh, I don't know, Bryce Jarvis Or Dre Jamison or someone for Hillsborough So Should be really good

I'm going to probably start the season with the bang And see some pretty good guys right off the top But what's so intriguing about it Is that we have no idea I mean we'd lost a whole year it's been a while frankly it's just been a while so how do guys manage their bodies how is their stuff changed etc so very interesting um you know i think if i had to name one thing just kind of an expediency you know we can write about the miners we'll touch based on this all year as we go

along but it's to me it's pitching um i am really excited to see what the pitching staff does I think this is a big year for the pitching staff to take kind of collectively a step forward within the system. Hearing some good things on some guys. And so just hoping that the pitching starts to catch up because it's been pretty bat-heavy. I think Eric Thomas is going to start the year in AA. He's a guy that's within shouting distance to the majors. Heraldo Pardomo is a guy we've already seen more as a defensive type, but he's there too. so I don't see anyone necessarily coming straight up and maybe feeling like a middle of the order

bat or anything but the pitching staff I think is probably a year or two away from maybe really closing ground on on the position player's side so that's certainly something to watch Bryce Jarvis last year's first round pick will be getting underway here probably tomorrow with a whole bunch of help in Hillsborough and guys are just kind of scattered throughout the system. One guy I am really keeping an eye on is left-hander Tommy Henry, who was a 2019 draft pick from the University of Michigan. Lefty velocity has come back a little bit for him. Secondaries have always been, you know, okay. I think it's a collection of a lot of average-ish pitches that kind of play up because he knows how to use them and is a pitcher, not a thrower. So that's one that's maybe

not so much in the middle of the radar that's worth keeping an eye on and that's a guy that's in double a has big like marquee big 10 uh you know college starting experience and you know the you know what hits the fan you have to reach down um he's a guy that's you know at least uh just a phone call away yeah yeah well we are we are beyond excited to have minor league baseball uh back in our lives for a number of reason. So we'll certainly keep you updated on that here. And yeah, I think pitching is is so evidently, I mean, you look at the landscape of the NL West right now. And there's, it's no secret why, you know, the Padres and the Dodgers are sort of expected to run away with this thing. Their, their pitching staffs are just a remarkable depth. I mean, just the Padres, the injuries that

that pitching staff has gone through is is mind blowing. And yet somehow, you know, they're still, you know, near the tops of the league in preventing runs. And that's ultimately where this Diamondbacks team is going to have to get back to. You know, it hasn't been that long since we've seen a starting rotation that was pretty top notch around the desert. But I think it might be, you know, another year or two before we really get back to that point. Zach Gallen is here and ready to go. But the Diamondbacks certainly need you know, some some good arms to put around him. So, so yeah, it'll be interesting to, interesting to see how that unfolds over the next few years. But yeah, with that, we are going to wrap up episode 27 of the Rattle Podcast. Thank you all for submitting questions. It was a lot of fun getting to

engage with all of you. Be sure to check out that article that Jeff mentioned. If you want to dive deep more into Madison Bumgarner's notable achievement or whatever they're calling it these days, be sure to check out the rattle.net. You can find that article over there. Joshua Inman, of course. Our other writer over at The Rattle is always posting some great stuff. So you'll want to check that out for sure as well. You can find me personally on Twitter at at Jesse and Friedman.

Jeff is at Outfield Grass 24. You can find our joint page for the show. That's at the Rattle, a Z on Twitter. We'd love to interact with you on any of those platforms. But for now, for Jeff Weiser, my name is Jesse Friedman. Thanks so much for listening. And we'll be back here in a couple weeks to talk more about the surprisingly surging

2021 Arizona Diamondbacks.