PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ep. 7: Have the Diamondbacks Ever Had an Elite Reliever?

Episode Date: May 29, 2019

We celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Diamondbacks' bases-loaded walk to Barry Bonds. We also discuss AZ's bullpen problems and page through Diamondbacks history in search of an elite relief pitcher. In addition, we break down Luke Weaver's injury news and what it means for the team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode seven of the Rattle podcast. As always I'm your host, Jesse Freepin, along with my co-host, Jeff Weiser. And Jeff, of course, is always here on the Rottel. We're going to jump into the latest events of the 2019 Arizona Diamondbacks. But before we do, I think it's only fitting that we recognize what happened 21 years ago today. So if you do the math, We're talking about May the 28th of 1998. That's the Diamondbacks inaugural season. And what happened on this day that was significant, you might have seen this floating around on Twitter today.

I know I did. That's how I originally came to see this moment. But basically what happened is Barry Bonds was at the plate. This was one of the most famous moments of Barry Bonds' career. Of course, 2001 was a season when he put up absolutely ridiculous numbers. and he was at the plate with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning. There were two outs in this situation. The Diamondbacks led this game 8 to 6,

and they elected Jeff to intentionally walk Barry Bonds, forcing in a run, and made the game 8 to 7. The Diamondbacks did go on to win this game because the next hitter lined out, so it worked. But Jeff, this is by then-manager Buck Showalter, probably one of the boldest moves that you have ever seen a manager make in MLB history. Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's almost unreal, but at the same time, like, the minute you said that it happened to Barry Bonds, I just am like, well, yeah, that makes sense. It's just like, do I want him to score one run here, or do I want him to score, you know, two or three or four?

So, yeah, we'll just limit it to one. Barry Bonds, I don't have numbers in front of me, but I know for a fact that 2001, I think might have been the best season of his career. It was numbers that year were just completely ridiculous. And it was a time when you literally felt that you had a better chance to win the game with two outs and the bases loaded. You had a better chance to win the game by putting Barry Bonds on, forcing in that run, and getting the next guy. That is how good of a hitter Barry Bonds was at that stage in his career. with that we're going to go ahead and jump into the 2019 Arizona Diamondbacks, but this is the anniversary day of that moment. I think it's pretty interesting, definitely one of the most famous

moments of Barry Bonds' career and something that a lot of people don't know, me included prior to today, is that that moment actually was really fostered by the Arizona Diamondbacks and Buck Showalter, who put that into action. But with that, we're going to go ahead and jump into the 2019 Diamondbacks since our last recording on Friday, the Diamondbacks shellacked the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Field over the weekend. They outscored the Giants 34 to 8 over the course of a three-game sweep. This team has, frankly, Jeff, been pretty hard to figure out. The Diamondbacks, we talked about it in our last show,

couldn't seem to buy a run against the San Diego Padres at Petco. and then they moved on to San Francisco. Something clicked. The offense figured things out. Yesterday in Corse Field, the story basically shifted around once again. And it was, of course, very unexpected. Being in an environment like Corres Field,

you figure if you're scoring 34 runs and three games in San Francisco, you could probably score 40 runs in Corse Field, but that was not the story as the Diamondbacks lost a tough one yesterday, four to three. Jeff, this team seems to be, if nothing, else remarkably inconsistent. Yeah, that's the name of the game to me. You know, trying to figure out what team's going to show up each and every day has been

really difficult to sort of decipher. And it just seems like, you know, I think you nailed it. Like it seems like, you know, every time out, it seems like they could score double-digit runs. And then there are days where it just is like, you know, the well is completely dry and they can't seem to buy a hit, you know, when they really need it. it's been really, really challenging. And I think, you know, for people like us,

it's made it really difficult to decide just how good this team is. It's, you know, we remarked on it on Friday that, you know, they are winning big and losing by a little. But at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter how much you lose by if you lose. So the losses have kind of piled up, you know, they were 500. They, you know, just blew out the Giants and then, you know, kind of padded the record and then drop one to the Rockies who, you know, looking at the standings are, you know, maybe sort of slowly, you know,

climbing their way up. You know, they're five and five over their last 10 games, but the debacks are four and six. And, you know, they're really not too far off the Diamondbacks' pace. They're only two games behind. And so the rest of the series becomes really important kind of with the pecking order of the division, San Diego's, you know, holding tough. They're right there. And so it's really sort of this like three-team race to see, you know, who can be relevant

in the division, you know, obviously looking well up at the Dodgers, but, you know, someone's going to want to fight for one of those wild card spots. And the Diamondbacks have been in a great position to do so, but they're just really, really struggling to, you know, put together any kind of consistency. And that's just been awfully frustrating. I know you made a joke about this on Twitter that the Diamondbacks over the course of that blowout series in San Francisco really did pad their Pythagorean win loss. which for those of you who don't know, that's basically your projected record based on your run differential.

And the Diamondbacks right now sits at 32 and 22 for them. So that is the expected record that a team that has scored the amount of runs the Diamondbacks have and allowed the number of runs the Diamondbacks have. That is the record that a mathematical system would predict that they would have. The Diamondbacks, of course, at 2826 fall four games below that. Jeff, will you look at 3222? do you see the math behind that is being actually, you know, actually representative of where the Diamondbacks legitimately are as a team?

Or do you think 32 and 22 is unrealistic for this team and that run differential is really more just the result of the Diamondbacks having some games like they did in San Francisco where they completely blew out the opposing team? Yeah, I think that's really hard to say that there are a 32 and 22 caliber club with some of the struggles we've seen, you know, of late, you know, with the bullpen and and some of the issues that they've had. I also, you know, you and I were talking before we started recording, but there is, you know, Pythagorean record itself, you know, is kind of a, you know, perhaps a flawed framework, but, you know, it's probably even more flawed today in the run

environment that we have with team scoring so many runs. I mean, it's really easy, you know, the dimebacks are actually just a great case for this, right? It's a team. that can pile up some big run totals against a team with the poor pitching staff. You know, and so that kind of, that may inflate the Pythagorean record a bit. So that would actually be a pretty fun thing to look into and see because, I mean, like a team like the Reds. I mean, the Reds have not been a good baseball team this year, but they've actually, you know, according to the Pythagorean record, underperformed by six games where the Diamondbacks are four. So, I mean, there's just some really extreme swings in here.

And I think that's probably related to just the really extreme. run scoring environment that we have in baseball. But, you know, they've probably got a few too many issues to be 32 and 22 right now. Maybe 30 and 24 that base run suggests might be a little more accurate. The Diamondbacks have really struggled as of late in these close games. This is something we've talked about in the show in the past. This is something that I tweeted out. The Diamondbacks over their last 13 games that have been decided by three runs or less,

or 2 and 11, including losing their last nine consecutive such games. Jeff, once again, we've tried to analyze this as best we can. We've talked about how not all one-run games or close games in general created the same. It's pretty hard to pinpoint really any particular characteristics of a team that's going through something, like what the Diamondbacks are going through right now. Do you have anything that you can pull from something like that? I think it's a I think it's really difficult. I mean, I think we're kind of where we end up is, you know, I mean, in a sense, it gets easier to analyze the bigger the sample gets.

The bad news is that's more like one run losses. So, you know, a big sample is not exactly what you're looking for there. But, you know, as we saw, you know, as we saw yesterday with the bullpen just kind of having that meltdown after, you know, Granky was really good again. they're probably just an arm or too short in the bullpen and I think the bullpen you know kind of as a you know as big league bullpens

go is probably pretty middle of the road you know maybe just a tick below that from a result standpoint from a talent standpoint they're probably just kind of you know middling bullpen but you know it's like they really need that person that can just come in

and be the stopper you know, Herono got himself into a mess. Chafin didn't help matters by walking the only badder he faced. You know, and turning to Archie Bradley, you know, ended up biting the Diamondbacks, you know, as Aronado put some runs on the board. So it's a really, really difficult spot to be in. You have to be able to turn to somebody. And, I mean, you know, you would think maybe heading into the season that Heronau was a guy you could turn to you. He's struggled.

You know, Chapin is a guy you can turn to you. he's always a little erratic. Bradley as a guy you can turn to you, not this year. And then you start going deeper, right? I mean, do you really want to put Yohn Lopez in that position? I know his results have been good, but sometimes the way he gets there has been a little shaky. You know, maybe you turn to a guy like Jimmy Scherfey. Is that who you want to really put that opportunity on?

I don't know. I'm just kind of, I'm coming up short in terms of looking for guys that have a lot of confidence in right now to get you out of a situation like that. I think all of that points to this larger reality with the Diamondbacks and something that I really realized, I know I've probably noted this on the show in the past, but something that really stood out to me watching yesterday's game is that it has been a really, really long time since the Diamondbacks have had that kind of guy in the bullpen who year in and year out you knew was going to be just a dominant force at the back end of your bullpen.

And I think we all thought that Archie Bradley two years ago was about to develop into that guy. And then the second half of last season plus this season, heck, he's got a whip right now of almost 1.9, which is unheard of for any pitcher in baseball, much less your back end relief pitcher. This is turned into a serious problem for the Diamondbacks, where they just year and year out seem to be living on, you know, guys like Brad Boxburger, Fernando Roddy. This year it's Greg Holland, guys who they're kind of moving through one year

at a time with the closer roll. And then all of these middle relievers just seem to be inconsistent at best, where one season they look great, the next season not so much. And Jeff, I know you did a little bit of research into the Diamondbacks. The kind of relievers they've had over the course of their franchise history and frankly the results of that are not horribly pretty no it's really it's really not very good um it just seems to be a place where where they've lacked uh more often than not and you know just looking back at like the team totals for um for for war uh for relievers and i'm i'm always skeptical of using war on relievers it's it's it's a pretty flawed measure but For a shorthand, it's what I'll reference here.

They have the 28th most war from the bullpen, from relievers, since the inception of the franchise. So they rank 28th out of 30 clubs. Only the Cardinals and Tigers have been worse. And teams like the Yankees, the A's have more than double, you know, war from the bullpen than the dimebacks have since they, since they, since I really began. I mean, it kind of prompted me to look up, like, who are the best relievers they've ever had? And, I mean, the best guys they've really had are young young Kim,

Jose Valverdi, and JJ Putz, but those guys, I mean, Ken was worth five war in his time at the Diamondbacks, Valverde was worth almost five, puts was worth less than three. Andrew Chathen has the fourth most war of any reliever for the Diamondbacks all time. Oh, dear. That tells me something, because Andrews was,

Chafin, while he can be very effective at times, is a very, like, limited reliever, and for him to be the fourth most valuable guy in franchise history really tells you something when Chafin, Bradley, Brad Ziegler, David Hernandez are among your very best relievers all time. That tells me you haven't had a lot of dominant relievers. I think a lot of people have also brought into question here more referring to this season that maybe those relief features have not been necessarily put in the best position to succeed. There was a lot of pushback, especially last night with the Diamondbacks

4-3 loss to the Rockies, where Archie Bradley was brought into face Nolan Aeronado with bases loaded in two outs. Of course, wound up giving up a two-run single to Aeronado that ultimately brought the game into extra innings where the Diamondbacks eventually lost 4 to 3.

From my standpoint, I very much understand fans who are looking at that move by Tori Lavello, and saying, okay, you've talked in the past about how you're not going to put Archie Bradley in those situations, at least not to the extent that you have in the past. And yet there he is, that same guy that we've seen struggle in so many big moments this season winds up in that exact same position.

Yohan Lopez was still out there in the bullpen. Obviously, I don't think either of us are particularly in love with Yohan Lopez as an elite reliever at this point in his career maybe at some point down the road i don't think he's there yet but the diamond backs do you think jeff do you think they had a better option than going to archie bradley in that situation i don't know i mean i think at that point um you know torrey's got the notebook and the ipad i mean he's he's well aware of you know what the matchup says and so um we may hear that he wants to go away from using Archie in those kinds of spots, but at the same time, the data may tell him that Archie is really the best option there.

I don't know that, but that may be a possible explanation. I do know the following Aeronado's hit yesterday, I believe he's 8 for 20 in his career against Archie Bradley, which is a 400 batting average. So obviously there's more numbers than just Aeronado's career against, to Archie Bradley in the past, but I doubt the situation was that, you know, Archie Bradley held aeronauta, well, 150 career batting average or anything like that, because the number certainly did not bear that out. Yeah, exactly.

And so, you know, I think if there's going to be an opportunity, there has, if there's one fault that people have noted for Tori, it's that, you know, he is maybe, maybe too loyal. And for the torch to really get past to someone else, they're going to have to be given those kinds of opportunities. It's so easy to second guess. I mean, if Yon Lopez comes in and gives up the hit, you know, it's like, what are you doing? You know, why give this to Yon Lopez?

Like, let, you know, let, you know, you have Archie Bradley. Like, use Archie Bradley in the spot. So hindsight's 2020. I don't know, but at some point, they're going to have to start giving some of these other guys a chance. And it's just not working for Archie. He's having obviously a restaurant. go of it and to put him back in that spot i mean you'd love to see him come in strike out aeronado and

kind of get his swagger back but yeah i just i don't know if he's there right now yeah i got archie bradley at this point in his career has his really just taken a big step back it seems like in pretty much every sense the the fastball command i think is is really what comes to mind first and foremost, he just doesn't seem to have the ability to dock corners like he's done in the past. And something that you and I talked about while this moment was happening last night is that the Diamondbacks relievers that they have had, who have been good, speaking mainly of Yoshi-Hirano and Archie Bradley from last season, those are guys who are at the end of the day just two pitch pitchers. And they're also both guys who, if they put any of those pitches in the wrong

spot. Their stuff just isn't quite at the level where they can get away with it every time. Specifically, Yoshihara, who's sitting about 9-1 with the fastball these days. And you look at, you look at, you know, a two-pitch pitcher, these are guys who, at best, can be good. And we saw that at times last season. Both of these guys were very effective in their roles. But you look at some of the relievers around the game today that we consider elite, you know, the Josh haters of the world. kinds of calipers of pitchers, the diamondbacks relievers are just nowhere, nowhere even close to that kind of category. No, the margin for error is just so thin there. I mean, for Yoshi,

he's trying to get to that splitter, but if he can't, you know, if he misses with, you know, misses with the fastball, it's going to get hammered. I mean, it doesn't have a lot of movement. It's, you know, it doesn't have a lot of heat on it. It just doesn't. doesn't work out. I mean, it's, it's such a, it's such a fine line between success and failure for a guy like that. There's just, there's very little room. You know, and same with Archie. He's, you know, the, the curveball can be a sharp one outing and then terrible for the next three. And it just makes life really hard on him. You know, and I kind of go back and I think about, you know, we're naming off some of these relievers, right? That historically the Diamondbacks have

had, you know, whatever their limited successes. I mean, I've really, just haven't, you know, it's not an area that the team has really invested much money in. And I think for a really long time, you know, analysis really pointed towards, like, not overpaying for relievers. Don't spend a lot of money on your bullpen. Like, it's a bad place to invest money. Outcomes are wild. And, you know, it's not a good idea to give relievers huge amounts of money. Well, I think we've kind of moved into an era where we've maybe gotten past that a little bit and we don't need to use that sort of like blanket length. language to think about all relievers, we can start to get a little more granular and maybe

figure some things out to where, you know, maybe this is an area that the team does need to start investing in and need to invest a little more heavily in because the quality is just not there right now. And for as good as the rotation has been for much of the season, the bullpen has let them down several times and it's getting hard to watch. It's getting frustrating, you know, and if for some reason the team gets hot, you know, and ends up, you know, missing out of the wild card by, you know, say, a game or two, it's like, it's going to be pretty easy to identify where, you know, those one and two losses maybe came from. I mentioned the Diamondbacks blowout of the Giants over the weekend in San Francisco, 34 to 8,

was the score difference there. The Diamondbacks really, really dominated the Giants in that series. but the series did not end in a way that the Diamondbacks would have liked in that Luke Weaver was removed from his start on Sunday with the three words that I think every baseball fan really hates to hear about his starting pitcher, right forearm tightness, and that's the news that Luke Weaver received. He has since had an MRI, the news from the Diamondbacks is that it is a right forearm strain is at least what they're calling it so far.

Jeff, at first look, I thought of that news as being pretty good. It at least doesn't seem to imply that Luke Weaver is bound for Tommy John surgery right away. Tori Lavello also did say that the Diamondbacks are very hopeful he will not require surgery in order to get this issue fixed. I know, however, that, you know, right forearm tightness, there's a long story. history with these kinds of injuries. The Diamondbacks were similarly optimistic last season when Taiwan Walker went through a very similar situation

and of course he wound up needing to have Tommy John surgery. The hope, of course, is that Luke Weaver doesn't have to go down that road. But unfortunately, you look at the history with an injury that's diagnosed the way that Weaver's injury was diagnosed and the history says this is probably

not headed a very good direction. yeah absolutely um which is which is really heartbreaking for weaver um who really appeared to be kind of you know turning a corner finding a pitch mix that really was working for him again right um and the the team was was obviously reaping the benefits um and and he's such a big component of what will forever be you know uh you know documented as the paul goldschmidt trade so it's really unfortunate i think that um you know by and large when we hear that more far more often than not, it ends up leading to Tommy John surgery. You know, Jeff Passon's book, The Arm, if folks out there haven't read it, I would encourage that.

There's a large portion of that book dedicated to form a diamond back, Daniel Hudson, kind of what he went through with Tommy John surgery. And, you know, it's just a really, really, you know, difficult reality to accept that this is pretty normal in baseball now. But with as normal as it is, my post for a baseball prospectus on Friday of last week was about all of the guys that underwent Tommy John surgery in 2016 and kind of, you know, looking back at like 140 Tommy John cases and how they panned out. And it's, you know, it's all over the map. I mean, Tommy John seems pretty basic today.

But it's not necessarily when we look, you know, look into, you know, the whole sample size. So certainly hoping for the best. I mean, not very many guys have had sort of that UCL injury and been able to kind of rehab their way through it. I think Masahiro Tanaka is a guy that's actually survived, you know, avoided the surgery and has went on to have some success. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Ruby de la Rosa was a guy that initially they started with,

you know, the platelet-rich plasma treatment on his elbow before eventually having to, he ended up having a second Tommy John procedure. So, you know, even in the instances where they've initially tried to go away from it, like, you know, more often than not, sometimes, you know, they end up having to refer it back to that. So it's just really, really heartbreaking for Luke

and, you know, hoping for the best and hoping we get good word. But like you said, I mean, Taiwan Walker isn't far away from coming back, though, you know, I'd say that's probably, it sounds like that's probably still more than a month out. So they're going to have some kind of filling in to do in the meantime because no matter the diagnosis is on Weber, he's not pitching anytime soon.

Yeah, for Weaver, in some ways, this kind of diagnosis seems to be, it's almost like it's not a matter of if you need Tommy John surgery, but only when. You know, when are we finally going to come to terms with the fact that the pitcher needs to just have surgery and get it. it over with. I think we've seen that with a lot of different pitchers in the past. You mentioned Ruby De La Rosa, where they kind of tried to beat around the bush for a while. Of course, hoping for nothing but the best for Luke Weaver, who has been a very effective

starter for the Diamondbacks this season, especially given the fact that, you know, he was really the centerpiece in that trade where Paul Goldschmidt became a St. Louis Cardinal. I think if, you know, Luke Weaver becomes shelved for the next year and a half. I think that would be a really, really tough hit for this band-based. So obviously hoping for nothing but the best there. We do have a question kind of relating to this issue from Joshua Letterman, who simply wants to know, being that Luke Weaver is now injured,

who is starting this Friday? And this Friday, of course, is the first day where the Diamondbacks kind of have to address this issue of filling that rotation spot for the time being. and Jeff, the options are not super clear at this point. I think the Diamondbacks could potentially look to go outside the organization if they feel the need to. But in the interim, by Friday, as far as we can tell, the Diamondbacks aren't, you know, signing Dallas Keikle or anything in the next 24 hours. So, Jeff, who do you think it is going to be on Friday?

I think they have a couple of options. It is a little unclear. I'm not totally sure what they're going to do. I mean, we just found out that Taylor Clark is going to pitch Thursday. So Friday being kind of the open day, I mean, you know, Zach Godley pitched on the 24th and three three innings. You know, does he get, you know, an inning of work or throw a side session? And they try to, you know, kind of parlay that into Friday. You know, that's maybe a possibility.

And a really similar situation would be turning to John DePlante, who could be called up now because he's been down for more than the requisite 10 days. But his last start was on the 24th as well. So, you know, maybe they do a similar thing where, you know, maybe he, instead of, you know, making his start for Reno, he throws a side session or a bullpen or does something to kind of stay loose. And he just works with a couple extra days rest and comes back up and provides that sort of buffer. I do think they're sort of at a point, though, from a rotational depth standpoint where

John de Plantey might be able to unpack his bags in Phoenix because we're sort of to the point now we're not looking for like a one-day solution. You know, Friday's issue is going to be a reoccurring one and the team is going to need someone like De Plontier or, you know, maybe it's moving godly back into the rotation or something. They're going to have to come up with something that has some sustainability behind it because they're going to be faced with this every fifth day, you know, provided they can't time all of their rainouts with that day on the calendar.

So they're going to have to figure something out. And I think maybe now's the time for Diplantea to come up and shine. I mean, look, he came up early. His service clock started. This isn't like a, you know, this isn't like a situation where they're going to try to manipulate things. I mean, they need him and they need him now. So I'm like, I kind of don't see any way around really starting like transition.

or really giving him like a legitimate sort of like full on audition unless they want to make some move from outside the organization. And I don't really see any reason to do that, you know, other than maybe to add a depth piece, but I don't think they're going to get any kind of impact now. I mean, I think the Plontier is probably their best bet to really provide that lift. And look, I mean, here's a guy who's capable of probably filling Luke Weaver's shoes maybe not quite as well as Weaver had pitched up to the point of his injury,

but with like, you know, some level of aptitude and success where the drop-off isn't super steep. I mean, look, you could put Zach Godley back in rotation and, you know, I don't really have any confidence there whatsoever. So, I mean, I think now's the time to get DePontier his shot. I think Tori Lavelleve did mention recently that Gobby. would no longer be used in his starting role. Of course, he also mentioned that Archie Bradley would no longer be used in high-level situations, but Rizond up and out.

But I do legitimately think that I would be very surprised that the Diamondbacks turn to Zach Godley once again. I think you're right that this is John DuPontier's moment to shine. I know I tweeted out initially that the Diamondbacks would probably have to look outside the organization for this, mainly just thinking about DuPontiers, the fact that he's not stretched out yet, even at this point in the season, I believe, through 65 pitches in his last start, which is definitely not quite where you would want him to be for an everyday starter role. But, you know, you give him another starter to, and I think he probably pretty reasonably could come into a pretty decent pitch count. Right.

I don't think the Diamondbacks want to be in a situation where their bullpen is being used even more than it has. has been so far because I think, you know, maybe part of the issues with the bullpen has been that it's been overworked as it is at certain points. But I think the diamondbacks in the situation that they're in, I think DuPontier is undoubtedly the best option that they have. And like you mentioned, I think there's actually some excitement to this for some people. DuPontier is his given fans a little sparks here and there of what he can do. he's pitched pretty incredibly out of some very impossible situations on the mound.

I think I remember a bases loaded no-out situation against the Cubs where somehow miraculously worked out of that. So this is a guy who has some guts, and I think people are excited to see what he can do with the major league level, hopefully in an every fifth day kind of role. We do have a question. Actually, yeah, go ahead, Jeff. Yeah, one note on that.

I mean, I think in the sense, though, that's where, perhaps godly and having guys like godly and mad andries who can go more than an inning make you know bringing de plontea up maybe more feasible in the sense that you know he probably goes another start where uh the pitch count goes from 65 to 75 and another start where goes from you know 75 to 85 and then maybe you just turn him loose but in the interim you have some guys that you know if he can only get through four innings or five innings you know you have a little bit of length there and, you know, so maybe even though those guys aren't the guys that are going to start, maybe they allow DePontiate to start.

And so they might actually be in a pretty good position to make that transition, even though he's not, you know, maybe a stretch out as they'd like. Yeah, I think that's a great point. We do have a question for Matthew kind of along these lines. He says, what pitchers would we go after if we had to get one now and who would we go after at the trade deadline? Jeff, my answer to this is probably, that the diamond backs are, at least in this particular moment,

I don't think they would have the need to go out and get outside help. I originally thought that now that I consider the stage that DuPontier is in, that he's at least nearing being somewhat stretched out. And like you mentioned, the diamondbacks have some guys in the bullpen who can give you some length. I think he's the guy. I would be pretty surprised, at least myself, to see the Diamondbacks chase after any starting pitchers right now. Yeah, same here. The only real options would be, you know, are there any just like real by low, you know, guys that they can kind of snag, you know, off the cheap that maybe fill a little bit of a void?

But, I mean, frankly, that's really not of a whole lot of help here. So I don't know that I see it, but we do know there are some teams that are probably, like, already willing to sell. I mean, there's some real teams that really aren't trying to contend this year. So it's a possibility, but I don't think it's happening anytime soon, you know, maybe closer to the deadline if they're still in it. But no one really jumps to mind because I just don't think that's quite the direction they're going. And it's also so early in the season that it's not like we've heard a bunch of names floated out there of who's available. So it would be really hard to say right now. We also have a question from Justin McDiarmont kind of shifting gears quite a bit here.

he says who will the diamondbacks take in the draft with their first pick? Yeah, I mean, I'm going to leave my ringer on just in case, but I doubt I get the call. So it's really, it's such a crapshoot. I mean, we were kind of talking a little bit before starting recording. The Major League draft is just such a dicey proposition. I actually just put a post up today at the Rattle. looking back at all of the top 100 picks the dimebacks have made from 2006 to 2016. And there were 41 picks and, you know, a couple of hits, but a lot of guys that ended up either being like middle relievers or bench players or guys that just washed out altogether.

So, you know, go check that out if you haven't already. It's pretty fascinating. You'll see some names on those lists that you probably haven't heard in quite a long. time. I think all signs, you know, continue to point to them, you know, probably selecting high school outfield or Corby and Carroll. That's the name they've been linked to the most, at least publicly. We know that they've had like the front office brass in to see him. It's kind of described as like Alec Thomas for last year's draft with just a little bit better tools all the way across the board.

And Thomas is kind of a, you know, top 15, top 10-ish prospect in the system right now. So you're looking at a guy that, you know, Carol probably slots in as, you know, immediately probably a top 10 prospect in the system. But it's just so hard to say with them drafting 16th. I mean, it's unlikely that Carol goes any later than 16. I think if he gets to the Diamondbacks, they probably take him. But will, you know, were one of the teams, you know, know, picking, you know, eight or nine, Texas or Atlanta, will they go that route and try to

snag him? Does he last all the way to 16? It's hard to tell. And if he, you know, if he doesn't make it that far, things get really dicey. Like, their options after that become really, really wild. There are a bunch of, like, signability high school kids that they could look into with the, with the large bonus pool, maybe going overslot on a couple of, on a, you know, one of a number of high school guys.

So that's really probably where it goes. If it's not Carol, if Carol doesn't make it that far. So, I mean, that's kind of where I would bet that they go. But you're just really hoping that the 15 teams in front of you cooperate and you're able to get the guy you want. I think they're going to have to be really reactive on draft day. And by all accounts, you know, they've been really prepared. We started hearing, you know, the guys, fan graphs have been talking a little bit about how the Diamondbacks have had some of their pro scouting staff into amateur games to get extra looks on guys.

They've got, they've, like, deployed the whole system on this draft. So they're super prepared. And so it'll just be really interesting to see how it plays out. But, you know, it's just, it's really, like, virtually impossible to say with, with 100% certainty who they'll draft. we have a bit of a fun question from at andrew a jt to finish off this seventh edition of the rattle podcast we appreciate you sticking with us once again on a bit of a longer episode jeff we recorded not longer than about three or four days ago but it seems like so much has happened over the course of those things keep happening a lot to unpack and we were even looking at the diamondbacks

transaction chart and the number of guys they have set up and down from reno over the last 72 hours is pretty unbelievable. But moving on from that, the final question that we have for this show from out of Andrew A.J.T., he says, what's the best way to get a ball at Chase Field? Have you ever gotten one? And how, or from who? How difficult is the stadium for ball hawking? And he also wants to know about the minor league affiliates of the Diamondbacks as well.

Jeff, I feel it's only appropriate for me to pitch this question over to you because I cannot, unfortunately, speak from personal experience. I have never caught a baseball at any professional sporting event that I am aware of, or at least that I can recall at this particular moment. So I'm not sure if I'm the person that Andrew would want to get his advice from. So, Jeff, take it away. Where should fans sit in order to catch some balls at Chase Field? You know, the best spot, the best spot really is, you know,

the goal is, you know, first to get in early, right, when the gates open, and kind of rush into the stands there in like left center. That's really the best place to catch a, to catch like a BP home run ball. So that's where I would direct people. The hard part is that by the time the gates open, the Diamondbacks are either done or almost completely done with their batting practice.

So it gets really, really difficult. Like if you want to catch one from the opposing team, like go ahead. But if you want to catch one from the Diamondbacks, You might actually need to go to a road game, in which case I don't really know where you should locate yourself. But yeah, that's probably the best place at Chase Field, and it's fun. You'll get there. There'll be a bunch of people there with gloves and, you know, looking to catch balls. So that's really the spot to kind of post up.

And, you know, thinking of the affiliates, you know, I do, I attend a lot of games in Hillsborough every year. They have a nice outfield berm where you can have a nice picnic. but it is more of a pitcher's park. And in, you know, kind of, you know, short season of rookie ball, there aren't a ton of home runs hit. But that's probably the best place to get one. And then I was just recently in Vysalia, checking out the rawhide and I'll have some stuff coming for that.

And I'd say the best place to get a ball there is not to go to the outfield, but instead to go to the parking lot behind this video because there were a lot of balls. fouled off and hit directly into the parking lot and the subsequent street behind the stadium. So if you find yourself in Vaisalia, California, that's probably the place to try to get a ball. I don't think there's any outfield seating. So if anything goes out, it's going into the opposing bullpen or it's well out of reach. So those would be my tips.

So, yeah, you know, bring your glove and stay ready, stay loose. You know, maybe stretch a little bit before and just don't run over any of little kids. trying to get those balls. A big thank you to Joshua Lefferman, Justin McDiarmouth, Matthew, and at Andrew A.JT for submitting all of the questions that we got to answer in today's show. Be sure to submit your question for the next episode of the Ravel podcast. You can find us on Twitter at the RattleAZ.

I also want to give a somewhat obligatory shout out to my good friend, Bryce Rang Keo, who is the man who brought to my attention, the Barry Bond's moment that we talked to. about in the very beginning of this show. So shout out, or excuse me, a shout out to Bryce for bringing that to my attention. That was kind of a fun tidbit, a good thing to lead off with here in our seventh episode of the Rattle Podcast. For Jeff Weiser, I'm Jesse Friedman.

Thank you so much once again for joining us here on the Rattle Podcast, and we'll be back next week with more on the Arizona Diamondbacks.