Latest / Foul Territory / New show alert! Snakes Territory: D-backs Look To TORPEDO Yankees After Split With Cubs

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New show alert! Snakes Territory: D-backs Look To TORPEDO Yankees After Split With Cubs · Foul Territory

0:13
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome into the first ever edition of
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Speaker 1: Snake's Territory, the latest edition to the Foul Territory Network.
0:22
Speaker 1: I am your host, Jesse Friedman, back talking Arizona Diamondbacks
0:25
Speaker 1: baseball once again, and on this show, I am very
0:29
Speaker 1: excited to be joined by my good friend Jack Summers,
0:32
Speaker 1: who has also covered the Diamondbacks for a very long time,
0:35
Speaker 1: worked in the team's front office back in the day.
0:38
Speaker 1: And Jack, I know we.
0:40
Speaker 2: Said this off air before we hopped on together, but.
0:43
Speaker 1: You and I have been having our long baseball conversations frankly,
0:47
Speaker 1: much longer than an hour long baseball conversations, time and
0:51
Speaker 1: time again for the past several years. And this show
0:54
Speaker 1: is basically just those conversations, but with us pressing record
0:59
Speaker 1: and with all these great all this great imagery, all
1:02
Speaker 1: of these incredible graphics created by our partners here at
1:05
Speaker 1: fal Terra to make us look a little bit better
1:07
Speaker 1: than we would on our own. So I'm excited to
1:09
Speaker 1: do this and excited to do this with you, sir.
1:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you know, we get to do this for
1:16
Speaker 3: a long time already at the press box up there
1:19
Speaker 3: at Chase Field, and some of our conversations got pretty deep.
1:22
Speaker 3: Some of them probably got a little silly. We'll do
1:24
Speaker 3: that here again too.
1:27
Speaker 1: As people probably know, Jack and I we both enjoyed
1:31
Speaker 1: the analytics side of baseball, and of course we will
1:33
Speaker 1: be diving into the analytics side of the sport a
1:35
Speaker 1: fair amount on the show. But you're also going to
1:38
Speaker 1: hear from some other voices throughout the DBACS community. We're
1:42
Speaker 1: hoping to have pretty frequent guests on the show, players, coaches,
1:45
Speaker 1: that kind of thing, so you'll be hearing more from
1:48
Speaker 1: more than just the two of us over the course
1:50
Speaker 1: of the season. We're really excited to get started. And
1:53
Speaker 1: with that Jack, the Diamondbacks just won pretty crazy baseball
1:58
Speaker 1: game just just on Sunday, and Ryan Nelson, I guess,
2:04
Speaker 1: was kind of the star of the show.
2:06
Speaker 2: Right.
2:06
Speaker 1: The Diamondbacks are down six to two going to the
2:09
Speaker 1: bottom of the eighth inning, and Ryan Nelson came through
2:12
Speaker 1: Jack and he is the sole reason that the Diamondbacks
2:16
Speaker 1: won this baseball game, right.
2:18
Speaker 3: Pictures who Rake Man. It was a great moment for
2:21
Speaker 3: the kid. You know, he had been trash talking for
2:24
Speaker 3: a long time, ever since Scott McGuff had an opportunity
2:27
Speaker 3: to hit against the Yankees in the bottom of eleventh
2:31
Speaker 3: of an extra inning game as the last guy available
2:34
Speaker 3: and didn't come through. So Ever, since then, Nelson's been
2:38
Speaker 3: chirping at Tory Leavello, saying, hey, give me my shot,
2:40
Speaker 3: give me my shot. I can do this, I can rake,
2:42
Speaker 3: I'll hit a missile somewhere. Well, he bounced one up
2:46
Speaker 3: the middle and drove in a run, you know, and
2:49
Speaker 3: the team had just taken lead seven to six. But
2:52
Speaker 3: it was fun. You saw it coming probably an inning
2:54
Speaker 3: and a half away, that he was going to have
2:56
Speaker 3: to hit, and it turned out to be a pretty
2:57
Speaker 3: big spot. Former shorts start up from University Oregon, pretty
3:02
Speaker 3: athletic guy, and he went up there and he smack
3:06
Speaker 3: went up the middle. It was pretty pretty fun moment
3:08
Speaker 3: and he was hysterical in the clubhouse afterwards. He was
3:12
Speaker 3: I think he was most proud of his pop up
3:13
Speaker 3: slide in the second base, got his uniform dirty.
3:19
Speaker 1: Yes, we know, Ryan Nelson, you know, certainly could be
3:22
Speaker 1: a big factor for the Diamondbacks on the pitching side
3:25
Speaker 1: throughout this this twenty twenty five season. But yeah, we'll
3:29
Speaker 1: see if he continues to be a factor offensively throughout
3:31
Speaker 1: the course of the year as well. Yeah, but he
3:34
Speaker 1: was not the only one who came through in that
3:37
Speaker 1: big eighth inning for the Diamondbacks. They wound up scoring
3:39
Speaker 1: ten runs. They turned a six to a potential six
3:42
Speaker 1: to two loss in that finale into a ten six win.
3:47
Speaker 1: I believe it is still probably the biggest comeback in
3:50
Speaker 1: all of baseball this season, at least it was when
3:53
Speaker 1: it when it happened. So yeah, pretty pretty impressive win
3:56
Speaker 1: across the board. Other guys who stood out in that
3:59
Speaker 1: game you can see here on your screen. It was
4:01
Speaker 1: really Lordus Guriel Junior who really came through with arguably
4:04
Speaker 1: the biggest hit with a game time to run home
4:07
Speaker 1: run in that inning. Edward Rodriguez was pretty pretty solid
4:11
Speaker 1: overall in that one five and a third three hits,
4:13
Speaker 1: three runs, three walks, five strikeouts. Josh Naylor also a
4:17
Speaker 1: standout performer there, Jack two for two, were three walks
4:20
Speaker 1: and two runs scored, reached in all five played appearances
4:23
Speaker 1: on Sunday.
4:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was Nayler's double off the wall that drove
4:28
Speaker 3: in the go ahead run. He's the one that put
4:30
Speaker 3: them up to begin with. But Guriel's homer was electric,
4:34
Speaker 3: you know. Just before that, herald U Podomo, it hit
4:36
Speaker 3: a two run double. I mean they were They went
4:39
Speaker 3: into that inning, you know, six outs away from dropping
4:44
Speaker 3: three out of four to the Cups and struggling. The
4:48
Speaker 3: night before, they'd gone one for nine with runners of
4:51
Speaker 3: scoring position. The next they're going into the fifth, sixth inning,
4:54
Speaker 3: I mean they had like fifteen base runners and again
4:57
Speaker 3: we're at one point one for nine with runners of
4:59
Speaker 3: score position. Just couldn't get anything going, and Tory Lavello
5:03
Speaker 3: got aggressive. He pinched hit for Garrett Hampson in the
5:07
Speaker 3: sixth inning, And there's a whole big story behind that,
5:11
Speaker 3: you know, but that move is what ultimately led to
5:13
Speaker 3: Tory needing to use a pitcher at the plate. It's
5:17
Speaker 3: kind of a roster construction issue. Katel Marte was the
5:22
Speaker 3: DH for the game, and Garrett Hampson was in at
5:25
Speaker 3: second base, and Hampson's the only backup infielder that they have.
5:29
Speaker 3: They have they're carrying five outfielders. So when you moved
5:33
Speaker 3: Ktel into DH, you always have that risk that if
5:36
Speaker 3: anything happens and you have to move Katel into a
5:39
Speaker 3: position spot, now you've lost the DH. In this case,
5:43
Speaker 3: what was happening was nobody was hitting and they needed
5:45
Speaker 3: to pinch hit for Garrett Hampson, who's a week hitter.
5:48
Speaker 3: Peven Smith delivered a double. They ended up scoring a
5:51
Speaker 3: run on a sacrifice fly, and at least, you know,
5:53
Speaker 3: chipped away and got a little closer at that point,
5:55
Speaker 3: but that set the wheels of motion. Tory Levello then
5:58
Speaker 3: emptied his bench and he was just being really aggressive
6:01
Speaker 3: and you know, he kind of got caught out a
6:03
Speaker 3: little bit, but it all worked out in the end. Yeah.
6:08
Speaker 1: It kind of reminds me of pretty much this exact
6:11
Speaker 1: time last year, right when when Scott McGuff, I know
6:14
Speaker 1: you referenced McGuff earlier and Ryan Nelson very much wanting
6:17
Speaker 1: to get that sort of opportunity. This time around, McGuff
6:20
Speaker 1: did get a pretty similar opportunity again against the Yankees,
6:24
Speaker 1: the team that the Diamondbacks are about to play next.
6:27
Speaker 1: I guess there's some similarities with the schedule there, but yeah,
6:30
Speaker 1: I guess all is well.
6:31
Speaker 2: That ends well.
6:32
Speaker 1: Tory was really aggressive, as you said, early in the game,
6:36
Speaker 1: and it ultimately paid off and the Diamondbacks did take
6:39
Speaker 1: a lead before Ryan Nelson even came to the plate,
6:42
Speaker 1: So you know, I think it would have been a
6:44
Speaker 1: much worse. Look if they were still in a hole
6:46
Speaker 1: and needed their picture to come through off the bench.
6:49
Speaker 1: But as you said, the offense just kind of needed
6:51
Speaker 1: it needed something to jump start it. And you know,
6:54
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks as of that sixth inning where Peven Smith
6:58
Speaker 1: came in as a pinch hitter for Garret Hampson, like,
7:00
Speaker 1: they hadn't scored any runs at that point, and you
7:03
Speaker 1: could argue that Tory, being as aggressive as he was
7:06
Speaker 1: was was really a catalyst for winning this game.
7:09
Speaker 3: Right. Well, you know, I think when you look at
7:12
Speaker 3: when you kind of telescope out and you look at
7:15
Speaker 3: the whole series, you know, it's kind of funny that
7:18
Speaker 3: we look at j Henniel Suarez. I mean, he had
7:21
Speaker 3: a huge, huge series that ultimately won him the National
7:25
Speaker 3: League Player of the Week, which is a big announcement.
7:27
Speaker 3: This afternoon. He went four for fourteen. All four home
7:30
Speaker 3: runs were just massive moon shots up into the left
7:34
Speaker 3: field bleachers. Drove in seven runs. The second game he
7:37
Speaker 3: had two two run homes, so you know, he had
7:40
Speaker 3: four of the team's five home runs in the series.
7:43
Speaker 3: They hit three twenty nine. I mean, you look at
7:45
Speaker 3: all the guys that five for eight for Marino four
7:48
Speaker 3: for seven for Smith, Alec Thomas five for seven, a
7:51
Speaker 3: couple of doubles, a couple of singles, and a really
7:53
Speaker 3: long sack fly that almost went out the offense. You know,
7:57
Speaker 3: they they showed that they can do it. I had
8:00
Speaker 3: mentioned earlier they were having trouble with the runners in
8:02
Speaker 3: scoring position, but if you keep putting that many men
8:04
Speaker 3: on base, getting that many hits and that many walks,
8:07
Speaker 3: eventually the dam is gonna break. And it sure did.
8:10
Speaker 3: So you know, Diamondbacks led the league in scoring last
8:13
Speaker 3: year and they're on a good track to have a
8:16
Speaker 3: good offense this year as well. The other thing I
8:19
Speaker 3: wanted to especially mention here was Nailor that last bullet
8:23
Speaker 3: zero K and eighteen PA. I mean that guy. You know,
8:26
Speaker 3: the term professional hitter gets thrown about so much, but
8:30
Speaker 3: you know, he knows what the appat requires and he
8:33
Speaker 3: puts the bat on the ball. But he can hit
8:36
Speaker 3: with power too. He's not a punch and judy guy obviously,
8:38
Speaker 3: So I think that he really fits with this whole
8:41
Speaker 3: offense of we're not going to out homer everybody, but
8:44
Speaker 3: we're gonna get on base. We're gonna get a lot
8:47
Speaker 3: of base hits and we're gonna get our RBIs, So
8:50
Speaker 3: it looks like it's going to be all right.
8:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know, how much stock are you
8:55
Speaker 1: putting into offense over the course of one weekend? Like, yeah,
8:59
Speaker 1: probably not, but I'm with you that there were some
9:02
Speaker 1: positive signs here. The Diamondbacks had a nine to forty
9:04
Speaker 1: one oh ps uh over over the weekend, which is
9:07
Speaker 1: second in Baseball only to the Yankees at this point,
9:10
Speaker 1: not that it really matters four or five games into
9:13
Speaker 1: the season, but but yeah, this this offense at least
9:18
Speaker 1: it certainly passed the sniff test in the first series
9:21
Speaker 1: of the year. Granted, you know, is the Cubs pitching
9:25
Speaker 1: staff going to ultimately prove as one of the best
9:28
Speaker 1: in the league, Like, uh, maybe not, We'll we'll see.
9:31
Speaker 1: I think their rotation looked looked fine, you know, like
9:35
Speaker 1: showed Atmanaga certainly was very very good in his start.
9:40
Speaker 1: You know, you saw some some pretty decent performances in
9:43
Speaker 1: that regard. I know, Jamison ty Owne wasn't wasn't great
9:45
Speaker 1: in his outing. But the bullpen in in Chicago, and
9:49
Speaker 1: this is something I kind of figured all off season long.
9:53
Speaker 1: You know, there just isn't a lot there, and and
9:55
Speaker 1: it kind of felt to me at the beginning of
9:57
Speaker 1: the series that the Diamondbacks were going to win a
9:59
Speaker 1: game at some point over the weekend by just getting
10:02
Speaker 1: to the Cubs bullpen and and as of late late
10:06
Speaker 1: in the game on Sunday, it looked like maybe that
10:08
Speaker 1: was not going to happen. But then they they obviously
10:11
Speaker 1: score eight runs and and there you have it. I
10:13
Speaker 1: think that that bullpen might be an issue for them.
10:17
Speaker 3: I agree, you know, pressly. I mean, he's been a
10:19
Speaker 3: pretty good picture, but boy, he had a rough series
10:22
Speaker 3: and just did not look good. He couldn't locate ye,
10:24
Speaker 3: you know, falling behind, and then came in the zone
10:26
Speaker 3: and got hammered. They got a lot of walks moving,
10:30
Speaker 3: I drew a lot of walks and.
10:31
Speaker 2: Serious, yeah, yes, yes they did.
10:34
Speaker 1: As far as I guess, the more the more negative
10:37
Speaker 1: side of things here, you know, I think by and
10:41
Speaker 1: large like it was a series split, but I think
10:43
Speaker 1: there are probably more more positive than negative, at least
10:46
Speaker 1: from my standpoint coming out of out of the weekend.
10:48
Speaker 1: It's amazing how much of a one eight run inning,
10:51
Speaker 1: uh late on late in the series finale can can
10:54
Speaker 1: sort of.
10:54
Speaker 2: Change the equation.
10:56
Speaker 1: But if we were if we were kind of nitpicking
10:58
Speaker 1: here and trying to look at like, like, okay, what
11:00
Speaker 1: didn't go right? What could be an issue going into
11:03
Speaker 1: the future, Even though again such a small sample size,
11:07
Speaker 1: but Zach Gallon Jack was not particularly good on opening day. Obviously,
11:12
Speaker 1: that was really a really big decision for Tory Lavello
11:16
Speaker 1: deciding between him and this other guy named Corbyn Burns,
11:20
Speaker 1: who apparently is a member of the Diamondbacks, although we
11:22
Speaker 1: have yet to see him pitch. And yeah, Tory ultimately
11:26
Speaker 1: landed on Gallon. He's obviously been the anchor of this
11:30
Speaker 1: staff for a while now. But you know, you and
11:33
Speaker 1: I have talked about this a fair amount here the
11:35
Speaker 1: last year or so, like, Gallon has not really has
11:38
Speaker 1: not quite looked the part of a frontline starter on
11:41
Speaker 1: a consistent basis for a little while now. You know,
11:45
Speaker 1: his last forty two starts. I think if you include
11:49
Speaker 1: the postseason in twenty twenty three, that kind of that
11:53
Speaker 1: final portion of the twenty twenty three season where he struggled,
11:56
Speaker 1: and then all of last year and what we saw
11:58
Speaker 1: on his debut this year. His era is over four
12:01
Speaker 1: in a span that's you know, well over two hundred innings.
12:03
Speaker 1: So obviously that stat is is kind of cherry picked.
12:06
Speaker 1: And I'm not here to say that Zach Gallen isn't
12:09
Speaker 1: one of the better pitchers in the game. But if
12:11
Speaker 1: you're nitpicking from the weekend, he did really struggle on
12:14
Speaker 1: opening Day.
12:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think what's pretty clearly happened with Zach. I mean,
12:20
Speaker 3: he's still a good pitcher, but he's fallen back from
12:23
Speaker 3: being elite. I mean, he was elite for you know,
12:26
Speaker 3: a season, season and a half. And it all goes
12:30
Speaker 3: back to the fastball command, which we've talked about quite
12:32
Speaker 3: a bit. We actually have an article coming out tomorrow
12:35
Speaker 3: with detailing with charts and grass and everything. But you know,
12:39
Speaker 3: his his ability to command the fastball just hasn't been there,
12:44
Speaker 3: you know, really for the last one plus year. It
12:47
Speaker 3: started to drop off even somewhat towards the end of
12:50
Speaker 3: twenty three, and in twenty twenty four, the fastball comand
12:53
Speaker 3: was just a lot worse than it was at his
12:56
Speaker 3: elite levels. And without that, I mean, he's got this
12:58
Speaker 3: great arsenal, you know, he's got the knuckle curve, he's
13:01
Speaker 3: got the cutter, you know, I mean He's got a
13:02
Speaker 3: bunch of other pitches that he can throw good change up,
13:05
Speaker 3: but it just it's not gonna work if he can't
13:09
Speaker 3: locate his fastballs. Pitch council running up, and you know,
13:12
Speaker 3: he has drawn a lot of short outings, walking a
13:15
Speaker 3: lot of guys. It's just it's unfortunate that a guy
13:19
Speaker 3: like that is always looking to tweak something. And I
13:22
Speaker 3: think he may have tweaked himself out of his best
13:25
Speaker 3: mechanics because I can't explain anything else that The velocity
13:29
Speaker 3: is there, all the other secondary stuff is all still there.
13:32
Speaker 3: You know, why is he unable to command that fastball.
13:35
Speaker 3: I think he's tweaked his delivery and made minor changes
13:39
Speaker 3: here and there that kind of fixed what wasn't broken.
13:43
Speaker 1: His explanation, I was, I was on site for opening
13:47
Speaker 1: day itself. I wasn't there for the rest of the weekend,
13:49
Speaker 1: although I know you were. His explanation on opening day
13:53
Speaker 1: was that he felt like he was he was rushing,
13:55
Speaker 1: not not necessarily in like a pitch clock trying to
13:58
Speaker 1: get pitches off soon situation, but more in just a
14:03
Speaker 1: just his motion going toward the plate. He just felt
14:06
Speaker 1: like he wasn't hitting. He wasn't hitting his spots, the
14:10
Speaker 1: spots that he wants to hit when he's really in
14:12
Speaker 1: rhythm out there on the mound. So that's what that's
14:15
Speaker 1: what he had to say after the game. I'm with you.
14:19
Speaker 1: That fastball command, I think is really is really the
14:22
Speaker 1: soul of the issues that that he's had. And again
14:25
Speaker 1: it's not to say the Gallon hasn't still, you know,
14:27
Speaker 1: been really really good at times, Like I think back
14:30
Speaker 1: to his final start of the year last season pitching
14:33
Speaker 1: against the Giants where he came through in a big
14:35
Speaker 1: spot and had eleven strikeouts. And but but yeah, you know,
14:40
Speaker 1: he also when I talked to him at the end
14:42
Speaker 1: of last year, said that his twenty twenty four season
14:44
Speaker 1: was really inconsistent. It wasn't up to the to the
14:48
Speaker 1: standard that he was that he's trying to hit. And obviously, Jack,
14:52
Speaker 1: this is a pretty big season for him, Like this
14:54
Speaker 1: is this is his walk year, you know, I think,
14:57
Speaker 1: I think as long as he stays healthy, the floor
14:59
Speaker 1: for a next contract is still going to be relatively high.
15:03
Speaker 1: But the ceiling, you know, like theoretically could be very
15:07
Speaker 1: very high if he if he really shows himself at
15:10
Speaker 1: his best for the twenty twenty five season. But I
15:13
Speaker 1: think there's a pretty wide gap between you know, what's
15:15
Speaker 1: the lowest the Gallon could sign for this offseason and
15:18
Speaker 1: what's the highest, Like, you know, there's that there's quite
15:21
Speaker 1: a bit of money sort of on the line with
15:23
Speaker 1: with how he pitches this season.
15:26
Speaker 3: Well, I think you know, you use the word consistency,
15:28
Speaker 3: and of course every time we doubt Zach Gallon, what happens.
15:32
Speaker 3: He goes out, like you said, and throws a great game,
15:35
Speaker 3: and it reminds us just how good he can be.
15:37
Speaker 3: I mean, the guy still went fourteen and six last
15:40
Speaker 3: year with the three six five era. Now the era
15:42
Speaker 3: is a little high, the walk rade jumped up, but
15:45
Speaker 3: you know, he put that team in a position to
15:47
Speaker 3: win a lot and he got a lot of run
15:48
Speaker 3: support too. We all know one loss record isn't the
15:51
Speaker 3: be all end all, be all, but at the same time,
15:54
Speaker 3: you know, if you put the innings in, you're going
15:56
Speaker 3: to get there. I think heading into twenty twenty four
16:00
Speaker 3: work before that season started, I think we all agreed,
16:03
Speaker 3: like the floor for his next contract would be like
16:06
Speaker 3: the Aaron Nola deal, you know, seventy five million whatever
16:09
Speaker 3: it was, and it just feels like, you know, with
16:13
Speaker 3: every month, like a few million get lopped off that
16:17
Speaker 3: I think that floor is no longer the the Aaron
16:20
Speaker 3: Nola deal. I think that floor has dropped, maybe even
16:23
Speaker 3: onder one hundred and fifty, and he needs to raise
16:26
Speaker 3: it back up.
16:28
Speaker 1: I think that's I think that's probably fair. Yeah, going
16:32
Speaker 1: back to the fastball command stuff I tweeted out during
16:35
Speaker 1: the game, I think seven of his first twenty two
16:38
Speaker 1: four seemers were in the zone, which obviously is really low.
16:41
Speaker 2: I think it was.
16:42
Speaker 1: I want to say it was a thirty five percent
16:44
Speaker 1: zone rate for the entire game, which, Yeah, if your
16:47
Speaker 1: fastball is only in the zone thirty five percent of
16:49
Speaker 1: the time, that's really gonna that's really going to cause
16:52
Speaker 1: some some issues.
16:54
Speaker 2: His fastball location.
16:57
Speaker 1: One point, Yeah, that is also Yeah, through eleven consecutive balls,
17:01
Speaker 1: which of course resulted in two walks, both of those
17:04
Speaker 1: guys ultimately came around, came around to score. I'm not
17:09
Speaker 1: necessarily one to read into a location plus metric from
17:13
Speaker 1: one outing. For those who don't know what location plus is,
17:16
Speaker 1: it's basically just how well did you command a pitch
17:19
Speaker 1: Where one hundred is average, Anything above that is good
17:22
Speaker 1: anything below that is not so good. And Gallon was
17:25
Speaker 1: a sixty seven location plus with his four seen fastball
17:29
Speaker 1: on opening Day, which again it's one start. I mean,
17:31
Speaker 1: it's obviously a very small sample, but that is an
17:35
Speaker 1: incredibly low number. Last year, his location plus for the
17:39
Speaker 1: season was ninety two, which I believe was maybe the
17:42
Speaker 1: worst out of any pitcher who threw, you know, one
17:44
Speaker 1: hundred or more innings on the d Backs last year.
17:47
Speaker 1: So so yeah, you know, it's it's a pretty clearly
17:51
Speaker 1: identifiable issue, and it's a little bit weird because this
17:55
Speaker 1: is something that Gallon has excelled at at times in
17:58
Speaker 1: the past, like his fastball come in. I remember Brent
18:00
Speaker 1: Strom when when he was the Diamondbacks pitching coach, like
18:03
Speaker 1: raving about how Gallon's fastball command was really what set
18:07
Speaker 1: him apart from other pitchers. And it's amazing how something
18:10
Speaker 1: that sounds so simple can have such a big impact.
18:14
Speaker 3: Well, it's a hard game, like you said, and consistency
18:17
Speaker 3: is key, So we'll see how he goes. I think,
18:20
Speaker 3: you know, just kind of moving on from Zach a
18:22
Speaker 3: little bit, Jake McCarthy needs to mention here again, small
18:27
Speaker 3: sample size, I'm not talking about the fact that he
18:29
Speaker 3: went over eight in the series. That's how many guys
18:32
Speaker 3: went over eight. But the swings don't look great right now.
18:37
Speaker 3: And you know, there was a very catchable ball that
18:41
Speaker 3: was pretty key in Game one there, you know, kind
18:45
Speaker 3: of dove and left his feet a little bit, the
18:47
Speaker 3: ball went in his glove and hit the pocket and
18:49
Speaker 3: bounced out and three runs scored on the play. You know,
18:52
Speaker 3: a bass is clearing double and there are a lot of
18:55
Speaker 3: people that just felt like, hey, Alec Thomas makes that play.
18:58
Speaker 3: Of course, Alec to hit you know one ninety eight
19:01
Speaker 3: last year and was hobbled with hamstring injuries. So they're
19:05
Speaker 3: back in a mode of really fighting for that center
19:10
Speaker 3: field job. Alec messed up as hamstring last year, Jake
19:14
Speaker 3: took over, ended up having a really good year, hit
19:16
Speaker 3: at eighty five, had a center part of the season.
19:19
Speaker 3: It was really hot. And now Alec is back and
19:23
Speaker 3: running well, and he's himself as far as the legs
19:26
Speaker 3: and defense is concerned, and all of a sudden, he's
19:29
Speaker 3: you know, hitting the ball on the line and smoking
19:32
Speaker 3: the ball. So we'll see. It's two games each. It
19:36
Speaker 3: doesn't really mean anything as far as evaluation, but you
19:41
Speaker 3: know the team is looking at everything really closely. I
19:43
Speaker 3: mentioned the roster construction issue a little while ago. I
19:47
Speaker 3: think it's very possible that within a couple of weeks
19:51
Speaker 3: somebody like Blaize Alexander, who can play infield and is
19:54
Speaker 3: getting reps in the outfield in the minor league games
19:56
Speaker 3: out at Salt River, could be called back up. Garrett
19:59
Speaker 3: Hampsen can play outfield. The DBACS may very soon determine
20:03
Speaker 3: that they don't need to carry five outfielders and they'd
20:06
Speaker 3: rather go with infield, outfielder utility players and drop one outfielder.
20:11
Speaker 3: So keep an eye on that pretty closely. You know,
20:14
Speaker 3: Jake's going to have to turn it around pretty quickly
20:16
Speaker 3: here or he could be headed back to Reno Yet again.
20:21
Speaker 3: The other thing, you know, series concerns. Dbacks made six
20:25
Speaker 3: errors in the first three games. They made sixty two
20:28
Speaker 3: all of last year, which is the fewest in all
20:30
Speaker 3: of Major League Baseball. They had a couple of outs
20:33
Speaker 3: on base, including in Game three, the final out of
20:36
Speaker 3: the game, Garrett Hampson, who's there for his speed and
20:39
Speaker 3: base running, made a pretty big base running mistake and
20:42
Speaker 3: got deeped out by Dansby Swanson. On a pretty dark
20:44
Speaker 3: good play and ended up getting picked off their base
20:49
Speaker 3: as Swanson ran over to tag him. You know, at
20:52
Speaker 3: the same game, Pete Crime strong throughout Josh Neller at
20:55
Speaker 3: their base for the final out of an inning. You know,
20:58
Speaker 3: just a lot of missed double plays. There were at
21:01
Speaker 3: least two or three double plays that you used to
21:03
Speaker 3: seeing them turn and double clutching and just slow turns,
21:06
Speaker 3: and so that was kind of the narrative through the
21:09
Speaker 3: first three games. It's like, Wow, what's with all these
21:11
Speaker 3: mental and physical errors that this team, you know, because
21:15
Speaker 3: they live on the margins, right, I mean, for the
21:17
Speaker 3: most part, they have to win the little inches. Tory
21:19
Speaker 3: talks about that all the time. They're not going to
21:22
Speaker 3: slug you into submission. So that's something to keep an
21:26
Speaker 3: eye on. Even though that wasn't the case in game four,
21:29
Speaker 3: but it was very much the case of first three games.
21:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, it's kind of
21:35
Speaker 1: been the brand of the Diamondbacks the last few years, right,
21:39
Speaker 1: has been that there there's like a level of competence,
21:42
Speaker 1: there's a level of you know, just making making all
21:46
Speaker 1: the all the small plays, right. Tory Leavelo definitely brands
21:49
Speaker 1: himself as a manager on that So it felt to
21:53
Speaker 1: me like the Diamondbacks outplayed the Cubs over the weekend
21:58
Speaker 1: all in all, but they came away with a series split, right,
22:02
Speaker 1: And you look back at a lot of those moments
22:04
Speaker 1: you just mentioned, and you know it wouldn't have taken
22:08
Speaker 1: all that much to flip you know, that Thursday game,
22:11
Speaker 1: even though they wound up losing by four runs on
22:14
Speaker 1: Opening Day you mentioned the catch with Jake and center
22:18
Speaker 1: or I think there was a double play ball potentially
22:20
Speaker 1: right before that that they weren't able. They weren't able
22:23
Speaker 1: to convert. So there was an opportunity here to to
22:26
Speaker 1: take three out of four. You know, maybe if they
22:28
Speaker 1: eliminate like all those mistakes, maybe there would have been
22:31
Speaker 1: a route to sweeping the series. But ultimately, Jack, they
22:36
Speaker 1: kind of avoided disaster. I think it would have been
22:39
Speaker 1: it would have been rough to come away from that
22:41
Speaker 1: first series losing three out of four. Series split feels
22:45
Speaker 1: like a like a totally fine outcome. And now we're
22:48
Speaker 1: looking if we kind of look ahead here with our
22:51
Speaker 1: series preview of the New York Yankees, the Arizona Diamondbacks
22:55
Speaker 1: are traveling to New York and they are taking on
22:59
Speaker 1: a Yankees team that scored thirty six runs against the
23:04
Speaker 1: Breweries in three games. They hit fifteen They've hit fifteen
23:08
Speaker 1: home runs. Yes, we'll talk about the torpedo bats, but yeah,
23:13
Speaker 1: I mean, this guy named Corbyn Burns is pitching for
23:16
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks on Tuesday night and that feels like a
23:20
Speaker 1: pretty big.
23:20
Speaker 3: Finally, So yeah, for those that might not have been
23:28
Speaker 3: totally in the loop as to what happened there, when
23:32
Speaker 3: Tory Lavello chose Zach Gallen to get the opening day start,
23:37
Speaker 3: it would have necessitated Corbyn Burns pitching on six days
23:40
Speaker 3: rest in Game two, and he wasn't willing to do
23:44
Speaker 3: that and go out of his routine. He's used to
23:48
Speaker 3: working on four or five days rest. And while some
23:51
Speaker 3: people may want to say, hey, just you know, pitch
23:53
Speaker 3: when they tell you to pitch, and he had a
23:56
Speaker 3: very good counter argument. He said, Look, my routine is
24:01
Speaker 3: something that I set up five years ago and it's
24:04
Speaker 3: what maybe the pitcher I am today. That's why you
24:07
Speaker 3: signed me to a six year, two hundred and ten
24:08
Speaker 3: million dollar contract. I don't think you want my first
24:11
Speaker 3: time out for you as a Diamondback to leave that
24:15
Speaker 3: routine behind, to leave everything behind that's made me successful.
24:19
Speaker 3: And he plans out every single little detail of what
24:23
Speaker 3: he does from the minute his outing is done until
24:25
Speaker 3: it's the next time to throw at. I mean all
24:27
Speaker 3: pictures do that, but his is at an insane level.
24:31
Speaker 3: I mean he's got spreadsheets and every minute of every
24:33
Speaker 3: day is lined out and that's what he that's his process.
24:37
Speaker 3: So that's why Corbyn Burns ended up taking another backfield
24:41
Speaker 3: start and then pitching the opening series of the Yankee series. No,
24:45
Speaker 3: he's not the fifth starter in thek in the Diamondbacks rotation.
24:51
Speaker 1: I mean, technically he is the fifth starter in the
24:54
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks rotation. Jack, I don't know what to tell you. Yeah,
24:57
Speaker 1: So it is Corbyn Burns against Will Warren on Tuesday
25:02
Speaker 1: in the opener.
25:03
Speaker 2: Will Warren.
25:04
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. I don't know a ton about
25:06
Speaker 1: Will Warren. He's a twenty five year old right hander.
25:08
Speaker 1: Pitched a little bit in the majors last year, didn't
25:11
Speaker 1: have a particularly lot of success. Game two is Zach
25:14
Speaker 1: Gallon against Carlos Dan good pitching match up there, and
25:17
Speaker 1: then the finale is Merril Kelly against Carlos Carrasco. Who
25:21
Speaker 1: apparently is still pitching in Major League Baseball, which is oppressive.
25:25
Speaker 1: This is kind of the big three for the Diamondbacks,
25:28
Speaker 1: right Jack, I mean Corbyn Burns, Zach Gallon, Merril Kelly.
25:32
Speaker 1: I guess for the rest of the season it might
25:34
Speaker 1: kind of feel like Corbyn Burns is your number one
25:36
Speaker 1: starter and you have these three guys in succession. It'll
25:40
Speaker 1: be interesting to see what that looks like over the
25:42
Speaker 1: course of a three game series with all three of
25:45
Speaker 1: those guys going and again against the hottest offense in
25:49
Speaker 1: all of baseball. We mentioned it a few minutes ago,
25:52
Speaker 1: thirty six runs in three games. They swept the Milwaukee Brewers,
25:56
Speaker 1: and Jack, I guess it's time to tell the people
25:59
Speaker 1: about the torpedo. So the Yankees cheating or what happened
26:02
Speaker 1: to here over the weekend, Well.
26:05
Speaker 3: They're absolutely not cheating. I mean, you can't get a
26:07
Speaker 3: bat into a major league game that hasn't been vetted
26:10
Speaker 3: and cleared. I mean, there's a whole process to have
26:14
Speaker 3: your bats that you manufacture approved and to be able
26:17
Speaker 3: to get into a major league game. It's not an
26:19
Speaker 3: easy thing to become an approved vendor. So you know,
26:22
Speaker 3: the bat's illegal and you know, the simple explanation with
26:26
Speaker 3: the torpedo bat is some of the mass has been
26:29
Speaker 3: moved from the end of the bat to the about
26:33
Speaker 3: six inches off the end. Some people call torpedo, some
26:36
Speaker 3: people call it a bowling pin shape. I'm sure almost
26:40
Speaker 3: everybody watching this has already seen some kind of pictures
26:43
Speaker 3: of it. And at least five of the Yankee hitters,
26:46
Speaker 3: Jazz Chisholm, Anthony Volpi, We've got Paul Goldschmidt, Bellinger, and
26:53
Speaker 3: Austin Wells I believe, so at least five of them
26:56
Speaker 3: were using it. And you know, they were all part
26:58
Speaker 3: of the home run parade, so much so that before
27:01
Speaker 3: the season even ended, I heard that Riz Hoskins went
27:04
Speaker 3: and ordered some and you know players throughout the league
27:08
Speaker 3: or or trying to jump on the badwagon. So you know,
27:12
Speaker 3: it's a legal bat. It meets to weight specifications that
27:16
Speaker 3: may all the dimensions are legal within the written rules.
27:20
Speaker 1: Now you know, either legal, they're legal for now Jack
27:24
Speaker 1: the illegal.
27:27
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I mean we don't know it's really good.
27:30
Speaker 3: I mean Aaron judgesn't use it. He's hit four home
27:33
Speaker 3: runs and three in a game and you know he's
27:35
Speaker 3: not using it. He's just a great hitter, so we
27:37
Speaker 3: don't have enough data to know that this is really
27:40
Speaker 3: the case. Anecdotally, Dansby Swanson was also using one in
27:45
Speaker 3: the d Backs and the game against the d Backs,
27:48
Speaker 3: and I alerted our friends over in the boot. I
27:52
Speaker 3: have my binoculars out and I'm saying, hey, get your
27:54
Speaker 3: cameras on Dansby Swanson. He's got a torpedo bat on
27:58
Speaker 3: his shoulder, and they picked up right away. They got
28:01
Speaker 3: to it, and sure enough, he takes a swing and
28:04
Speaker 3: the thing shatters just like half the bat just went
28:08
Speaker 3: down the third base line, and then later he got
28:11
Speaker 3: a new one and he hit the ball weekly down
28:13
Speaker 3: the third base. The point here being is you're probably
28:17
Speaker 3: going to see fewer cheap ground balls and flares get
28:21
Speaker 3: through because that are hit off the end of the bat,
28:25
Speaker 3: because I think there's obviously the mass moved, so those
28:28
Speaker 3: are going to be even weaker and just not quite
28:30
Speaker 3: be able to, you know, get through. So it'll be interesting.
28:33
Speaker 3: But if the data shows that these are really leading
28:35
Speaker 3: to that many more home runs, you know, one or
28:39
Speaker 3: two things are going to happen. MLB or rewrite the rules,
28:42
Speaker 3: or everybody in the league's going to be using them.
28:46
Speaker 2: Those are the only two options.
28:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the torpedo vats to me are are
28:52
Speaker 1: in a way like not really surprising, right. It almost
28:56
Speaker 1: it kind of dawned on me, like I feel like
28:58
Speaker 1: I should have seen this coming. It was only a
29:00
Speaker 1: matter of time before some MI I T guy, you know,
29:04
Speaker 1: like figured out how to remake bats within the rules
29:07
Speaker 1: that would maximize the damage that you could do on
29:11
Speaker 1: barrels you know where you really where you really do
29:13
Speaker 1: hit the ball right on right on the sweet spot,
29:16
Speaker 1: and that that's effectively what what these bats are doing.
29:19
Speaker 1: I did think it was interesting.
29:21
Speaker 2: Jack.
29:21
Speaker 1: I believe this was Trevor McGill, reliever with the Milwaukee Brewers,
29:25
Speaker 1: who of course faced the Yankees over the weekend. His quote,
29:29
Speaker 1: this is a this is a story from from ESPN's
29:31
Speaker 1: Jeff Passon. He said, like something used in slow pitch softball.
29:36
Speaker 1: That that was his description of the torpedo bats. So
29:41
Speaker 1: it's become basically the biggest story in all of baseball
29:45
Speaker 1: here over the last few days, and the Diamondbacks will
29:49
Speaker 1: we'll get to see it on display firsthand, with a
29:51
Speaker 1: number of Yankees hitters presumably using these bats into the future,
29:56
Speaker 1: and I guess Aaron Judge didn't use it, but he's
29:58
Speaker 1: Aaron Judge and he home runs over the weekend anyway,
30:01
Speaker 1: so uh he he could. You know, he could basically
30:04
Speaker 1: use any bat up there, and you know he'd probably
30:07
Speaker 1: still hit the ball over the fence. But yeah, it'll
30:09
Speaker 1: be interesting to see what what these few days look like.
30:13
Speaker 3: Well, like you said, the Dbacks have their top three
30:15
Speaker 3: pitchers going. It should be a good series. I'm really
30:18
Speaker 3: looking forward to seeing this. You know, best against the best,
30:21
Speaker 3: that's what that's what you want to see every time.
30:25
Speaker 1: Well, we appreciate you all joining us here for this
30:28
Speaker 1: very first episode of Snake's Territory. I know our our
30:32
Speaker 1: video maybe a little on the blurry side throughout this.
30:35
Speaker 1: We'll do our best to get those issues ironed out
30:37
Speaker 1: over time. We appreciate you bearing with us. Be sure
30:40
Speaker 1: as you see here on your screen if you're joining
30:42
Speaker 1: us on the video side to like and subscribe. You
30:46
Speaker 1: can find the show on the Apple podcast app, on
30:49
Speaker 1: Spotify pretty much anywhere you get your podcasts, you should
30:52
Speaker 1: be able to find it there, and then of course
30:55
Speaker 1: on on YouTube here as well with our our channel
30:58
Speaker 1: under Snake's Territorylory. If you can like the video, drop
31:02
Speaker 1: a comment. We'd love to hear what you think. Tell
31:05
Speaker 1: us what you think of the torpedo Bats, whether you
31:07
Speaker 1: think they should be outlawed by Major League Baseball here
31:11
Speaker 1: in a matter of days. Jack I also failed to
31:14
Speaker 1: mention at the top of the show. For those of
31:15
Speaker 1: you who don't know, Jack covers the Diamondbacks on a
31:19
Speaker 1: daily basis for Arizona Diamondbacks on SI does an outstanding job,
31:24
Speaker 1: So if you want more Jack Summer's content, you can
31:27
Speaker 1: go over to their website.
31:29
Speaker 2: And it's not just Jack.
31:30
Speaker 1: He has an army of other writers over there doing
31:33
Speaker 1: great work as well, so be sure to check that out,
31:36
Speaker 1: and I guess drop Twitter handles here as well. You
31:39
Speaker 1: can find the show at Snake's Territory. You can find
31:43
Speaker 1: me at Jesse and Friedman. Jack correct me if I'm
31:46
Speaker 1: wrong at Shoe Wizard fifty nine.
31:48
Speaker 2: I get that right, You got it?
31:51
Speaker 3: You got it?
31:53
Speaker 1: Okay, there we go. Correct Okay at Shoe Wizard fifty nine.
32:00
Speaker 1: To give Jack a follow as well if you have
32:02
Speaker 1: not already, Thank you again to all of you for
32:05
Speaker 1: joining us on our debut episode. We're planning three episodes
32:09
Speaker 1: per week throughout the season, so stay tuned. Our schedule
32:13
Speaker 1: here for this week and kind of the general rhythm
32:15
Speaker 1: of the show is still TBD, but you can certainly
32:19
Speaker 1: expect to hear from us again here very soon. So
32:22
Speaker 1: thank you again all for joining us. We appreciate your time,
32:25
Speaker 1: and we will see you all again very very soon.