PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ep. 29: The Curse of May, Pavin Smith the All-Star (?), First-Year Player Draft Projections, & More

Episode Date: June 3, 2021

Jesse and Jeff discuss the D-backs' abysmal performance in May, the rise of Pavin Smith, and the franchise's long-term plan. 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 in to episode 29 of the Rattle Podcast. As always, my name is Jesse Friedman, along with Jeff Weiser, my co-host. And Jeff, how are you doing on this lovely Wednesday evening? I'm burning up. It is above 90 degrees in Portland, Oregon, which means it's officially very hot. But, you know, compared to what a lot of our listeners in the, you know, greater Phoenix area maybe experiencing, I probably shouldn't complain. Yeah, we recognize there's not exactly going to be a wealth of sympathy out there for us.

But yeah, up here in the Seattle metro area where I am, yeah, we're at about 85 degrees. And I've heard a number of complaints throughout the day of just how burning hot it is. So, yeah, granted, we're probably making most of our listeners quite angry as we say this. But all that to say, Jeff, I think we're both probably doing better than the Arizona Diamondbacks at the moment. Suffices to say the month of May was not particularly good to them. Nor has it historically been good to them, Jeff. Our man Joshua Inman check him out on Twitter at Roof and Panels Open. He recently tweeted about the Diamondbacks woes in the month of May over the last few years. So we start with their record in May this year, which is 5 and 24.

Oof, that was rough. Of course, the renowned 13 game losing streak that we got to enjoy right in the middle there. But beyond that, you look at the Diamondbacks in the month of May since Tori Lavello and Mike Hazen took over here in Arizona, Jeff. The Diamondbacks are 39 and 81 in the month of May. they've had a thing of, you know, starting out strong most years. And then if things have fallen apart, which last year was not great, obviously last year is the month of May there wasn't even baseball being played. But years prior to that, the month of May tended to be a year where,

tended to be a month, excuse me, where the Diamondbacks would just sort of fall back to earth after maybe starting things off well in the month of April. So the Diamondbacks in May since Lavello and Hazen took over, they were playing at a 53 win pace out of 162 games. That's 53 wins and 109 losses. That's their pace with how they've played in May compared to other months where the Diamondbacks have played at an 89 win pace. That would be 89 wins, 73 losses, all of that according to Joshua Inman. So, Jeff, I don't really know how to explain this. It's hard to make an argument here that there's something about the month of May that

actually gives the Diamondbacks problems for a specific reason. Other than that's just sort of how it's happened. And here in 2021, it was particularly ugly. Yeah, that is so weird. And kudos again to Joshua for digging that up. And it just, you know, those are things like there are certain splits that I worry about and certain splits that I don't. Like there are those, I don't know if you dig into some splits on, on, you know, baseball statistics.

Might say how a player performs on grass, you know, like. Sure. It's still dirt in the batters box and on the mound, so I don't really care. But yeah, that is overwhelming. That's like over the period of, it sounds like, you know, more or less like four years or so. So that's really weird. Yeah, and this made was no different, right? Just about nothing went to plan more injuries.

getting guys back, you know, slowly and trying to have them hit their stride. Some decent pitching performances spoiled by a lack of offense. Some runs scored, but to no effect as pitching couldn't, you know, keep runs from crossing the plate. I mean, I don't know. Personally, professionally, and in terms of baseball, it may has been a really long month. That's what I have to say about that. Yeah. No, I am right there with you, Jeff.

Yeah, we appreciate all of you listening here. I know it's been a while since we've gotten to do a show. Things have been certainly crazy in our personal lives. But frankly, I think, Jeff, I think our excuses, we just wanted to wait until the Diamondbacks got out of the streak and won a game because, frankly, who is going to listen to a Diamondbacks podcast in the middle of a 13-game losing streak? But beyond that, Jeff, there are some slight glimpses of Brighton

through all of this that we want to recognize. Pavin Smith has been knocking the cover off the ball, especially over the last week or so. He's hitting like almost 500 over the last week. He's been a lot of fun to watch. And he's really become, for me, Jeff, at least, just one of the main storylines of this season. Because frankly, most things have been fairly forgettable,

especially on the pitching side of things. But Pave and Smith comes in today. He's played basically every day. I think he's taken the second most at bats on the team this year, aside from Eduardo Escobar. So he has been in the lineup pretty much every day. And a lot of that is his own doing. He didn't necessarily come into the lineup as a guy who was projected to stay in it every single day.

But with all the injuries, he's gotten his opportunity. And he's certainly taken advantage of that. Right now, 290, 344 on base, 460, slugging percentage. things are looking pretty good for Pavin Smith so far, Jeff. Yeah, it's a well-rounded skill set, which is one of the things that I appreciate. Not a whole lot stands out in terms of like a true calling card, despite what he did last night in terms of hitting an absolute missile.

Yeah. Off of Marcus Stroman. Yeah, man. You know, it's not like he has the loudest power. He doesn't walk at some, you know, Joey Votto-like rate. You know, he makes plenty of contact, but he'll strike out a tiny bit. It's just a really well-rounded approach.

And, you know, you called out something that I had kind of noticed in our, you know, in our pre-show sort of research was that, you know, Payvon came in to today's game with 214 plate appearances. Cole Calhoun, Catelle Marte, and Christian Walker came into today's game with a combined 211 played appearances. Wow. Now, I know, Pavin has at times

sort of filled in for Cattel in center. He's filled in for Christian Walker for space. He's filled in the corner outfield spots a bit. And so he really has been a big beneficiary of the injuries. And he has done

more than enough to sort of warrant his batts, warrant his playing time. He's made the most of it and really made a name for himself, which I think is pretty awesome. I remember right after he signed, he was assigned to Hillsborough, and I remember seeing him some of his very first professional games. And I was reflecting kind of last night as he hit that home run. Anyone who caught that will notice that as soon as he hit it, he did a little bit of a backflip, took a couple slow steps to first base. He definitely kind of watched that one.

Yeah. And I sort of felt like, I mean, that that moment sort of spoke to me in a sense where I felt like Pavin Smith's body language was indicating that he really felt like he belonged, that he no longer is that scrappy kid, you know, hoping to sort of cling on to a roster spot. He is here. He's here to stay. I don't know exactly what his role will become. I think, you know, the way he sort of finishes out the next several months. so the season will have a lot to say about that. But he's done everything right.

He's done everything asked of him. And there might still be like a little bit left in terms of growth, which has me pretty excited. Yeah, I think I've been the most impressed with just the versatility. Because if you had told me he was getting at 290, slug 460, you know, I would have been pleasantly surprised. I mean, that's really good for a guy who's, you know, just kind of finding his.

way in the major leagues. That's impressive. But I think I would have still maybe had questions, right? Like, okay, he seems to be primarily a first baseman, maybe a corner outfielder. You know, I mean, that's nice, but I don't know if that's going to play in the long term as, you know, if he's stuck at first base. But, you know, he's played some center field. He's played in the corners and he's played at first base as well.

And he's been like a pretty solid defender. You know, I don't know if he's going to win any gold gloves or anything anytime soon. But to me, you know, the moment he shows that level of versatility, you know, you'll go with, you know, 290 and, you know, a 460 slugging percentage for a guy who can play that many positions and do it reasonably well. I agree. And that's where I think, you know, I received the comment sort of, you know, discussing Payman Smith the other day on Twitter, you know, about, well, you know, it's basically a little. league average bat at best. No, and that's maybe he's maybe kind of an unspectacular player. And in a sense, like I agree with that to a degree. You know, he's not Fernando Tatis Jr.

He is not Vladimir Guerrero Jr. You know, he's not the, he's not going to be on the cover of MLB the show next year. But at the same time, like, he doesn't have to be. And that's not, that's not the baseline. You know, when I get excited about pay. Stephen Smith. I'm not excited about him because I think he is the next space of the franchise. I'm excited about him because I think he's a player who's making the most of his opportunities. He is, as you noted, defending his position well, no matter where he's penciled in,

you know, around the diamond defensively. And he's like finding a way to contribute, night in and night out. And to me, that's what it's, that's what it's all about. I think he's still a really valuable asset. And when we look at teams like the Dodgers who have historically, you know, especially over the last half decade or more, one of the places they've had that huge advantage is just they don't give at bats to really bad players. They just generally don't do that. And right now, if Cole Calhoun gets hurt, you have Payvon Smith.

If Krishna Walker gets hurt, you give those at Bats to Payvon Smith. You find a place for him to play, you know, on a regular basis if everyone's healthy. and if they're not, then the guy who takes those spots, maybe being paving, you know, keeps you from having a black hole in the lineup. So he doesn't have to be, you know, the face of the franchise to still be a guy

who is a very important part of the future of the organization. What's really crazy to me, I know we touched on this briefly when we were talking earlier before the show. Just thinking about, you know, I mean, every team in baseball every year, you've got at least one all-star. And the Diamondbacks, because of their injuries,

don't really have a whole lot of candidates for that position. Catelle Marte has only played 20 games out of 57. That's probably not enough, even if you give him another month, you know, before a lot of the voting happens. So I don't think Catell is an all-star. Zach Gowland, certainly with his injury issues, although he pitched well, he's not in the conversation.

There's no one else on the pitching staff who even has a remote chance. So you're basically left with Carson Kelly, who has played 37 games out of 57, which is only about, you know, a little bit over 60%. I think as a catcher, you know, there's probably some leeway there. I think he definitely could get a look. I mean, heck, is on base percentage is 426. I mean, there aren't that many catchers that, I mean, that's still insane, even though Carson Kelly hasn't hit much the last couple weeks. So you're basically down to Carson Kelly or I don't think Eduardo Escobar is really in there.

He's, you know, he's hit 13 home runs, but you look at the other numbers on base is under 300. He's just not doing a whole lot of other things. He's striking out quite a bit. David Peralta is not really in the mix either for me. So it's basically Carson Kelly or Pavin Smith. And maybe Josh Rojas kind of sneaks into that conversation. I never thought I'd say that, but maybe Josh Rojas sneaks into that conversation. sneaks into that conversation.

He has not pitched or has not played well the last couple weeks, but he has an outside shot. But I mean, frankly, Jeff, I don't know if that says more about Pavin Smith or more about the Diamondbacks lack of All-Star options right now, given the injuries and everything. But wouldn't it be crazy if the Diamondbacks representative in the All-Star game, was this sort of no-name? I mean, I know he was taken in the first round. and at one point was pretty highly touted,

but I don't think most baseball fans have actually heard of Pavin Smith, and that would be pretty funny to see that happen. Yeah, I mean, it's a short list like you noted. I mean, the pitching staff is so decimated. The representative, you know, even just trying to find one is not going to cut from that side of the ball. And, you know, yeah, I mean, it's great that Eduardo Escobar has 13 homers. And as of last night, at least, was leading the National League and RBI is at 39.

Yeah, yeah. But it's like those are really surface level statistics based on how he's sort of gone about his business. And so, yeah, it's very interesting that when you just think of, and I think the way that we're framing this, right, or the way that we're thinking about it, our mindset is sort of who's been the MVP of the team, you know, on the field, especially of late. Yeah. You know, kind of feels like. And I mean, you know, we don't, we obviously don't want to like ride the wave too much and, you know, get carried away with a small sample, but it sure feels like whether it's in the field

or at the plate, Pavin Smith has kind of been right in the middle of the action. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. Boy, that's so weird. Edwardo Escobarton does. He's like right at the top in the National League and RBI's. That's really strange. It's always strange when you feel like a guy is having a pretty

subpart season and yet he's like at the top of the leaderboards in some things. That did catch my ear recently on the broadcast. I was like, wait. I'm glad that we can rewind TV these days because I was like, wait, I got to hear that again. Well, hey, that's a good segue into the next thing I want to talk about, Jeff. And that is, what is this team going to do at the trade deadline and the off season? What is the plan here?

Because, you know, frankly, I don't think we really saw the Diamondbacks having a super great shot at making the postseason. And, you know, you decimate half the roster with injuries. and that certainly didn't help things. Now they're completely buried. It's basically the Diamondbacks and the Rockies just riding the total basement in the NL West. And then it's going to be a crazy run for first place. You're probably going to see both wild cards

come out of the NL West as it's appearing right now. The Giants, Padres, and the Dodgers are all playing really, really well. But the Diamondbacks are clearly on the outside looking in. And in the long term, Jeff, you know, I don't know if we necessarily think that the Diamondbacks with this roster next year would be a whole lot better. You know, maybe you get a couple guys like, you know, Pavin Smith or Josh Rojas or, you know,

some of these other players to contribute a little bit more. Hopefully you get more from the pitching staff next year. Some guys get healthy. But I don't know if this is really the kind of team that you're going to be pushing all your chips on in on for next season. And with that said, you certainly have to consider, you know, should the Diamondbacks sell Escobar, should they sell David Peralta? Should they kind of move on from that generation of Diamondbacks players and, you know,

make room for, you know, Dalton Varshot, even though he struggled to take 200 at bats or something for the rest of the season or, you know, for make room in the rotation for, for Corbyn Martin to, you know, start the second half of the season in the majors. You know, there's some guys who certainly could maybe use the reps. And it's hard to see what, you know, Escobar and Peralta and those. sorts of guys are bringing are bringing to to the roster right now so jeff what do you think what is what is a reasonable deadline off season just sort of more long-term plan look like yeah it's a really unenviable position from just about every angle um wins and losses you know of course um but even in

terms of like tradable assets they're not really well positioned it makes things really tough and yet at the same time the idea of bringing everything and everybody back back is like no more appealing than selling sort of short. I'm not sure that either situation really results in much meaningful difference at the end of the day. You can keep everybody and you're still a bottom level team where you could trade up. You could trade what you can and certainly guarantee that you're going to end up there and maintain yet another high level draft pick for 2022. So it's really is a tough spot.

You know, guys like Azribal Cabrera, who I think would have some trade value based on how he's been hitting and sort of just what he brings to a ball club. He's hurt and he hasn't played a lot. Yeah. And his return isn't necessarily like super imminent. So the same goes for a guy like Cole Calhoun. It's just a, it's just bad like every way you want to cut it.

And I think, you know, if this team on the outside looking in, And I'll just, you know, speaking for myself, if on the outside looking in, you know, they were going to be a fringe contender at best if like nothing went wrong, entering the season. I can't really see how in 2022 with the same cast, the forecast would look all that much different. They're not about to call up Wander Franco. They don't have, you know, the next great, great, you know, ace level, can't miss pitcher, you know, in AAA ready to go. There are some guys that could come up and play supporting roles and kind of get their

feet wet, but there's no like immediate relief here. It just doesn't exist. And yet, you know, Eduardo Escobar, you know, guys will be getting older. You know, if injuries are an issue now, just add another year to the equation. I'm just not sure how much any of this really helps. And so if it's me, I think you. you know that you're not going to get much in return, but you might start thinking about, you know,

like, as you said, starting to kind of clear the way for, for a guy like Dalton Varsha to really get, like, consistent playing time, which is something he hasn't really had a lot of. And I think it's made it tough to evaluate him. I haven't really loved anything I've seen from a guy like Josh Van Meter, but at the same time,

if you really want to give that an audition, you can. you know, maybe you find, like, try to find some space for Andy Young to play more often and get him back up. I'm not sure. I think you almost look at it that way. I mean, you could save some money, which is great for the organization. It doesn't do anything for fans. It's not really helpful. You know, it's not going to be of any real benefit.

It's not like that money is going to immediately be reinvested into the roster. I think right now you're almost looking at it more as an opportunity cost and maybe getting some guys, you know, another chance. So if it's me, I'm looking to sell in just about any favorable way I can, but I'm probably not exploring the nuclear option. Yeah, well, I know Yankees fans certainly have a certain Diamondbacks player in mind that they would love to have at the Trident line. I can hardly believe it myself, but Kattel Marte has certainly been swirling in rumors, which granted the rumors are all from Yankees fans.

there's no official there's no officialness to any of these rumors but but certainly you know if you wanted to go that route i'm sure you could get quite a haul for catel marty but i think we'd both be shocked if that ever happened at least any time soon so yeah it it really is a kind of an unfortunate spot you'd love to see as droobal and cole calhoun get healthy not just for their own sake but they were both hitting pretty dang well in the in the small samples that we have of each of them So I'm sure there's, you know, maybe a trade that could be, could be done there. Caleb Smith has been, I guess, useful out of the bullpen. I could see him being appealing to maybe a contender,

although at this point it looks like Caleb Smith might be needed in the starting rotation. Yeah. The arms over there are really dropping like flies. And I guess with that, we should give a brief injury update here. I'm sure all of you have heard Zach Gallen. is hurt. There's some sort of a UCL issue. Doesn't seem to be a total tear. They're not pursuing Tommy John surgery. So the sky isn't falling yet is really all I can say on that front. But Zach Allen threw a bullpen the other day, through 30 pitches and all of his pitches and

apparently felt good. So hopefully we get to see him again at some point. Madison, Bumgarner, the other guy in the more recent injury category, Bumgarner was removed with his start. today here as we record on on Tuesday or on Wednesday, June 2nd. Bumgarner, after a couple of things, he was not particularly effective and he said he had a shoulder issue that had been bothering him. So he's getting an MRI tonight maybe as we speak and I guess we'll follow maybe by the time you're listening to this. Those results are already out.

But certainly not great news there. But I'm curious from your standpoint, Jeff, on the, on the Zach Allen issue, you know, we sort of played this game last year with Luke Weaver. You know, him coming back from from an issue where, you know, it seemed like his UCL had a bit of a problem and they weren't opting for Tommy John surgery. He was going to try to ramp it up and with rehab and treatment and all of those things, he was going to try to come back and pitch. And he is now hurt again, not I don't believe with that particular issue, but with something

else. So certainly things didn't end super well there. But what do you think about the prospect of Zach Gallen sort of working his way back? It's so weird. You, you know, hear the term UCL and you immediately think Tommy John's surgery. But frankly, Jeff, it sort of feels like it might only be a matter of time before that's the reality for Zach Gallen. Yeah. And I think often it is. And I know there's, you know, there's sometimes the thought process is like, well, if there's an injury, like just, you know, cut him, cut him now and let's like get the rehab going. Right. Because everyone's staring at the clock going, well, can he throw the first pitch opening day, 2023? You know, so I understand that.

You know, I think for anyone interested, I think Jeff Passon's book of the arm is a tremendous resource. Yeah. and just a really, really great read and certainly brought, um, brought some things to light for me that I, I didn't understand. There are definitely some, some ties to the diamondbacks in that book as well. So a nice like local connection. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's, it's not automatic. So, you know, sending him for surgery, you know, is, is, does not mean that he's, you know, it's not so routine. Like,

there are guys that go for the surgery and of course it's come so far. Um, but there are guys that they go for Tommy John and don't really come back the same or don't come back at all. Guys who have it once start throwing and then end up having to have it again. So I say all that because it's not, it's not something to be taken lightly. And since, you know, he does not have apparently a full tear of the UCL, it does make some sense to continue to try to rehab him, build strength, maybe build, you know, continue to build muscles around, around the elbow to take maybe a little pressure off and do what they can to sort of mitigate it think so i i think they're i think they're exploring their their best options there but it's certainly

scary anytime um you know arguably the best player on the roster uh has such a threatening injury um and so so yeah i think it's it's still a wait and see kind of thing i mean i think you know uh seeing the kind of form he's able to come back with and or what he's able to produce over the rest of the season means a great deal um if he faces any kinds of setbacks that only increase the odds and so of him needing needing the procedure so uh definitely watching that one closely i think it has a lot of ramifications and i think it ties back to what they ties back to what they do with the trade deadline and what they do this winter um because they may be playing 2022 without their best pitcher um so just another reason to keep it on and i mean it's it's hard because it's not

like we get you know we don't get updates every five hours on on how it's going um right find out that Zach Gallen didn't have any elbow, you know, pain while eating chips and salsa. You know, there's like no news. We just don't hear anything for like a long time. But, you know, anytime there is news, it's probably the most pertinent thing that we could be paying attention to. Yeah. I want to touch for a second just on the rotation, the pitching staff as a whole. I think, you know, you mentioned the offensive struggles.

It's funny on our last show, we were looking at a team that had been. and extraordinarily good offensively, and the pitching just wasn't really there. And so, you know, we kind of asked the question back then, you know, if the pitching starts to figure things out, this could actually be a really good baseball team. But on the flip side, if the hitting falls back to Earth, this could be a really bad baseball team.

And unfortunately, the latter is what happened now as we look back on things. But it has been really rough, Jeff. Not just because of the injuries, you know, a few guys have come back. Madison, Bumgarner, had a really good stretch there for a little bit. Maybe it's because of the shoulder,

but certainly hasn't really looked like the same guy as last few times out. Merrill Kelly, in some ways, his numbers don't look too bad. He's not walking a lot of guys. Strikeout numbers are okay, but he certainly seems to be allowing maybe a little bit more loud contact than normal. Guys like Riley Smith,

you talked about a team like the Dodgers that just, you know, their next man up is a pretty good pitcher normally on the pitching staff side or, you know, on the position player side. Their next man up is always someone who's formidable and, you know, ready for the opportunity. That just hasn't been the case for the Diamondbacks this year. The guys who have come up to replace some of these ailing arms have just been pretty brutal to watch. Seth Frankoff and John DuPontier got a start recently. Corbyn Martin got a couple starts. they're really not getting any help from any of these guys.

And, you know, coming into this season, we said the pitching depth is not great. And Jeff, we are certainly seeing the ramifications of that play out right now. Yeah. You know, just so I was sort of comparing Pavin Smith's time to the guys with injuries. I mean, Riley Smith, Taylor Widener, Matt Peacock, and Seth Frankoff have combined to make 16 starts this season, which accounts for nearly 30% of the team's games. Wow. And I'll think back to sort of, you know, the times that I've spent working at

Baseball Perspectus and sort of doing Pocoda Forecasts and Pocoda Projections. One of the hardest things to nail down is how playing time is going to be allocated across a roster. It's really, really difficult. I mean, we always would bake in some amount of injury time and, you know, you give some innings to guys like a Riley Smith because you know you're going to need them at some point. Yeah. It's really difficult to know how much to give them. You just really don't know.

And so I think what we've seen this year already is that, you know, less than 60 games in, the team has had to give way, way more innings to these types of pitchers than they ever would have wanted to. I don't know that they really wanted to give 16 starts to some of these guys, you know, over the course of a season. And they've done it over, you know, about a third of a season. And so it's been tremendously, tremendously difficult. And they're just having to sort of suffer through it a night at a time and hope for the best. I mean, Matt Peacock and Riley Smith are just throwing a ton of sinkers and hoping to get ground balls.

Taylor Weidner has had some moments where he's looked okay. But, I mean, also in a vacuum, Taylor Wadner is not going to save this pitching staff when he comes back from the injury that he's currently out with. So it's just been a really. really, really tough go. And it's one of those things you just can't predict. And I think we're seeing sort of the, I think we're seeing the effects of that, the effects of having to give Zach Gowan starts to Matt Peacock.

This is what that looks like. Yeah, yeah, it's sort of the Diamondback's worst nightmare in many ways. And that's exactly what's happened so far. Well, hey, on a brighter note, looking to the future of this team, obviously things have not gone great so far this season. But we know this farm system is formidable. It's been highly touted for several years now, really,

ever since Mike Hazen came around. I want to get to the prospects in a second, Jeff. You'll have to give us our most recent update. But first, I want to hit on the first year player draft, which is coming up here soon, all sorts of mock drafts are coming out. The Diamondbacks will have the sixth overall pick in the first year player draft this year.

And some of these names are probably names that you've heard if you're a casual baseball fan. I know I see Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter footage going through my Twitter feet all the time. Some of these guys are guys that you might be somewhat familiar with. But Jeff, I'm curious. The Diamondbacks in a pretty good spot at number six. six overall, the top of the draft seems to be, I don't know if I would say stacked,

but there's certainly several guys that are supposed to be pretty darn good. And the Diamondbacks will probably have one of those guys available for them at number six. So what are we looking to see when the Diamondbacks select their pick in the first round? Yeah, they're going to get a good player, which I think is the good news. And I think the hard part is that no one has any idea which guy that's going to be. and I'm sure the organization is starting to sort of settle in on its preference list and really start to cement that. But you noted, I mean, there are kind of five guys at the top of the draft. Lighter and Rocker from pitchers, both ran-handed pitchers from Vanderbilt, Jordan Lawler and Marcelo Mayer, who are high school short stops.

And then catcher Henry Davis from Louisable are kind of your power five and the Diamond backs pick sixth. So the hard part is that, you know, it's been really fluid. That top five has has really been fluid. It's been really difficult to nail down sort of who's going to go where. It's been really difficult, frankly, to nail down who the best of those five is. You know, I think if we reround the tape a couple months, you know, we'd hear different names and it's been kind of a game of musical chairs up there. So I think for the Diamondbacks where they sit at sixth, you know, they're kind of probably weighing two scenarios. One in which one of the five teams above them goes kind of off the script and does not take

one of those five players. In which case, one of those five players would fall to Arizona. And depending on who that is, you know, they probably pull the trigger on whomever that is. But if all five of those guys go in those top five picks, they have some options. I think a guy like Sal Frelick, who's a center fielder from Boston College, makes a ton of sense. he's sort of in that mold of guys they like guys who make a lot of contact have the ability to hit for power

and can play good outfield defense he just kind of has even the body type of a Corbin Carroll Alec Thomas type just sort of that type of player they want to take a little more risk Brady House is a shortstop a high school shortstop out of Georgia

who's been on the scout radar for a really long time and has all the things you look for, but it's just a little bit of a younger package, there's a little more risk there. And then I could even see, you know, if they wanted to do something maybe really different, you know, you could look at maybe a guy like Jackson Job,

who's the, you know, hard throwing right-handed pitcher of the high school variety. But, you know, high-school variety is that high-end draft, it just hasn't gone, especially well. So I would be quite surprised to see them do that. I really think it probably comes down to, comes down to maybe one of those top five slipping.

And if that doesn't happen, Frelek to me seems like the most obvious choice. But we'll see what they do. They've played things pretty straight in the past. I don't see them doing anything super creative. I don't think at number six, they're going to draft some guy we've never heard of. So they're going to get a good player.

And that's a good thing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's funny. I'm looking at Sal Freleg, he's listed at 59-175. He sounds like a Diamondbacks draft pick already. Yeah. Absolutely.

Absolutely. We also, it's funny, Matt McLean is at least on MLB pipeline. He's ranked number 12. Of course, Matt McLean, the Diamondbacks took him in the first round with the 25th overall pick back in 2018. But he was a strong commit to UCLA. They couldn't sign him. He went to UCLA.

And now he finds himself. back in the MLB draft probably in the top 10, top 15, top 20, something in that range. So kind of funny to see his name pop up again. Jeff, no matter what happens, this is a pretty big draft for this organization. You look at just the way that prospects so far for them have panned out or not panned out in some ways. There are a few guys we've been really, really high on that seem to have maybe taken a step back or two.

And that's sort of life with, you know, having a good farm system. You know, you have it one day and the next day things have completely changed. And I don't think that's the case for the Diamondbacks. I think they're still riding high. There's a lot to be excited about. But this is going to be really big for them to just continue to try to stockpile the farm system, continue to try to build for the future. The Diamondbacks, you know, in a few years, you know, you see some of these guys at the lower

levels of the miners maybe eventually coming up. And maybe there's a window to contend. in a few years once those guys make it. But we certainly think they're going to need some reinforcements on top of that as well. And speaking of reinforcements, Jeff, I know you're the Diamondbacks miners guy. Give us your take. How have things looked so far, the minor league baseball season is underway. It's been going for about a month now.

How are things so far for the Diamondbacks in the farm system? Yeah, they've sort of, you know, suffered. suffered some losses right at the very top. Corbyn Carroll played about a week and a half and was shut down with the shoulder injury, but he was lighting the world on fire with, you know, so hard to see. Oh, so hard to see. Just an absolutely, you know, just a tough, tough blow. You know, Christian Robinson has had his off the field struggles, to my knowledge, is still stuck in the Bahamas visa issues. So that's really, they're two best prospects that have really done, you know, next to nothing or absolutely nothing.

Heraldo Pardomo isn't hitting at all, and it's all of a sudden striking out a lot. But on the pitching side of things, things have been considerably different. You know, there are some really nice K-to-walk ratios out there. I think the pitching as a whole is really taking a step forward, the starting pitching has. You know, Blake Walston is really kind of holding his own.

The ERA is not great. The K-to-Walk numbers are excellent. And I think especially down, you know, we talk about like low A, I think, you know, for folks that watch major league baseball on a nightly basis, if you have access to like A level baseball, you know, nearby, you go see it. Go watch what the defense looks like behind some of these pitchers and go see some of the conditions that they play in. And you may start to take minor league ERAs with the grain of salt is all I'm saying. So they've had some sort of standouts. Slade Chaconi, Bryce, Jarvis, and Drey Jameson have all, you know, performed reasonably well. You know, for Hillsborough, Tommy Henry's been kind of, you know, up and down a bit,

but it seems to be kind of getting his footing in AA. Levi Kelly is back in AA and is kind of building himself back up. So things are moving in a better direction from a pitching standpoint. You know, the position player side has taken some hits. Alec Thomas has actually been really great, you know, and actually, a guy that we haven't talked about much, but Seth Beer is kind of knocking on the door again. So, you know, Reno is obviously an enviable place to hit,

but he's kind of doing his thing. So all in all, it's, you know, it's a small snapshot. It's the first month of the year. A lot of these guys didn't play at all. They're only played at the complex last year. So it's still really weird. And understanding just kind of how to take everything and how to weigh everything is,

it hasn't all kind of settle out yet, especially, you know, in my head as we sort of try to evaluate what's happening right now. So I love to see another month or two of action and, you know, I'll be back out in Hillsborough here probably next week. So, yeah, just trying to, try to stay on top of it. But for now, the pitching is really shined. Yeah, yeah, that's good to hear. And yeah, as far as far as Seth Beer goes, you know, I mean, Christian Walker has been back with the Diamondbacks for a few days. he's certainly bound to have his arm fall off or something here in the next couple games. Something terrible has to happen.

Yeah, the Dominox are getting too many guys back from injury. Certainly something disastrous is about to go down. Speaking of guys coming back from injury, I think a good way to end our show today is to talk about Cotel Marte, who is back with the team after a pretty extensive hiatus. He was out for about six weeks, I think, all together with a hamstring issue. and he is back and Jeff, it seemed to take him a few games to maybe find his rhythm again offensively. But he said a couple home runs now in the last few days. And it is good to watch that man play baseball again every night day and day out.

Yeah, yeah, it is. It's nice to have him back. You know, my Twitter feed often late at night is me wishing Cattel well at the plate with the game on the line. So he's one of those, he's one of the guys that, you know, especially in an injury depleted roster that, you know, it's, let's just say it's the seventh inning. There's, you know, one out. The team's down a run or two. And you're thinking like, oh, somebody needs to get on base one or two guys here because we need to make sure Katel gets up in the ninth. You know, it's just like you sort of, you hate to sort of pin your hopes and dreams on one guy. But if there was one guy, you were probably going to do it with right now, it'd still be Katel Marte. And, Um, it's been nice to see him, you know, uh, you know, just sort of find his, start to find his groove again, um, start to play really loose again. He looks like he's coming back to his old self and, and sort of feeling even better on the field and man, when he connects and it's just, um, it's just violent poetry. I don't know how else to say it.

It's, um, it's really something behold. And, uh, yeah, certainly, certainly be watching it on a nightly basis because we're lucky we're lucky we're able to watch him yeah absolutely uh well hey with that we're going to go ahead and wrap up episode 29 of the rattle podcast i just realized jeff we didn't take any listener questions for this episode it's kind of sad but hey that means we have to make up for it on twitter um so be be sure to follow us on twitter at the rattle a z you can find me at at jesse n friedman uh jeff is at outfield grass 24 as we mentioned joshua inman our other writer uh you could find him at roof and panels open. We would love to hear from you over there.

I love to hear what you thought of the show. Anything that stuck out to you, anything you want to discuss further. We'd love to continue the conversation over there on social media. But with that, we really appreciate you tuning in. Should be back with another episode here hopefully soon. But yeah, Jeff, let's hope things get better here in the next few weeks. Hopefully June is kinder to the Diamondbacks than the. the month of May was. That feels like a reasonable thing to ask for, but we'll see what happens.

But yeah, thanks again so much for listening and we'll be back here soon to talk more about the 2021 Arizona Diamondbacks.