Latest / Foul Territory / Ken Rosenthal's Inside Scoop: Giants open for trade biz, Bryce Harper to the outfield? + D’backs update

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Ken Rosenthal's Inside Scoop: Giants open for trade biz, Bryce Harper to the outfield? + D’backs update · Foul Territory

0:05
Speaker 1: Trade season is approaching. It's the inside scoop of that.
0:07
Speaker 1: T senior insider Ken Rosenthal, who was first to report
0:10
Speaker 1: on the Giants testing the waters talking to teams about
0:14
Speaker 1: some big names. Ken, let's get into more on what
0:17
Speaker 1: you reported and wrote in The Athletic, as well as
0:20
Speaker 1: the fact that I just want to mention this at
0:21
Speaker 1: the top of the discussion, that the Giants might not
0:24
Speaker 1: wait like some of the other teams do. Buster Posey
0:26
Speaker 1: doesn't care about that trade deadline. If we remember last year,
0:29
Speaker 1: he started swinging way earlier than we usually see.
0:34
Speaker 2: Well, he's already traded Patrick Bailey, so you can make
0:36
Speaker 2: the case that that's continued this season that kind of pattern. Now,
0:40
Speaker 2: my understanding and what I wrote is that they are
0:44
Speaker 2: testing the waters, reaching out the teams, just kind of
0:47
Speaker 2: taking teams temperatures on maybe what they'd be willing to do.
0:51
Speaker 2: They have not yet fully committed to selling, but they
0:55
Speaker 2: are getting closer to that determination, and they're going to
0:59
Speaker 2: be an interesting team here because the question will be
1:02
Speaker 2: how far can they go? How far will they go?
1:06
Speaker 2: Now we know they have some interesting players on expiring contracts,
1:10
Speaker 2: most notably Louis Arias. He is someone who should be
1:13
Speaker 2: in demand. He is remade himself as a second baseman,
1:17
Speaker 2: continues to be an excellent hitter. Robbie Ray also on
1:20
Speaker 2: an expiring contract. He is a lesser piece. He's making
1:23
Speaker 2: twenty five million. He's not having the best of years,
1:26
Speaker 2: but he could perhaps help a team the back of
1:29
Speaker 2: the rotation. The real question is going to come with
1:32
Speaker 2: of course they're bigger contracts. Raphaeld Devers, Willie Adamis, Matt Chapman.
1:37
Speaker 2: Would they trade any of those guys, I'm sure they would.
1:40
Speaker 2: Would they get a decent return and accomplish what they
1:42
Speaker 2: want in that kind of deal that I'm not so
1:45
Speaker 2: sure about. Chapman is the one of those three having
1:49
Speaker 2: the best year by a good bit. He is, by
1:53
Speaker 2: one version of war, their team leader in war, and
1:55
Speaker 2: your other version, I Rise is the leader. Whatever. Chapman's
1:59
Speaker 2: having a good year has a lot of money coming
2:01
Speaker 2: to them second year of a six year, one hundred
2:04
Speaker 2: and fifty one million dollar contract. But you can see
2:07
Speaker 2: where a team in need of a third baseman would say,
2:09
Speaker 2: you know what, Matt Chapman is worth that money. He's
2:12
Speaker 2: that good even after his bad start, He's recovered, and
2:17
Speaker 2: if the Giants can pull that off, then they have
2:19
Speaker 2: third base open for Casey Schmidt. So there is going
2:23
Speaker 2: to be a lot of talk around the Giants. Justice
2:25
Speaker 2: is going to be a lot of talk around a
2:27
Speaker 2: lot of teams. And sure the Giants could pay down
2:30
Speaker 2: contracts and that would help their returns, but at some
2:33
Speaker 2: point you have to live with what you've done too.
2:36
Speaker 2: You can't just purge all of these guys. It's not
2:39
Speaker 2: going to work, and it would be financially kind of
2:42
Speaker 2: a mess. So I'm interested to see what they do.
2:45
Speaker 2: I'm not certain that it's going to be anything beyond
2:49
Speaker 2: a Rise and maybe Ray and maybe a reliever or two,
2:52
Speaker 2: but they certainly have some big pieces they can entertain.
2:55
Speaker 3: Moving Ken, you forgot a name, there was one name
2:59
Speaker 3: you didn't mention, and Logan Web is he not? Is
3:02
Speaker 3: there no way they would trade Logan Web no matter
3:04
Speaker 3: what they got, because I feel like there'd be a
3:07
Speaker 3: lot of teams out there that would really like to
3:08
Speaker 3: have Logan Web throwing seven innings every fifth day.
3:12
Speaker 2: I would never say no way to any player. Every
3:14
Speaker 2: player is in play at all times. It's just a
3:17
Speaker 2: matter of what you can get back. But when I
3:20
Speaker 2: spoke with someone yesterday who is familiar with the Giants' plans.
3:24
Speaker 2: He said, there are zero plans to trade logan Web,
3:27
Speaker 2: and he is kind of part of the fabric of
3:30
Speaker 2: that team in a way that is much more significant
3:33
Speaker 2: than Dever's. Chapman or adamis. Logan Web's homegrown, and he's
3:37
Speaker 2: a guy who signed an extension. He's someone who wants
3:40
Speaker 2: to be there. Has said that. So I don't see
3:43
Speaker 2: it right now, But Aj, you're right. Of all the
3:46
Speaker 2: names we mentioned, who would have the greatest possible value
3:51
Speaker 2: Logan Web.
3:53
Speaker 4: Of those people that you had talked about, you had
3:57
Speaker 4: said Chapman, you had said a Rise and said a Damis,
4:02
Speaker 4: who is leaning that they would be most inclined to
4:06
Speaker 4: get rid of just because they're like, okay, I'd like
4:09
Speaker 4: to get out from underneath that contract. Would it be
4:12
Speaker 4: be a Domis.
4:15
Speaker 2: I would say all the above, Eric to be perfectly honest,
4:18
Speaker 2: and if they could get out of any one of them,
4:21
Speaker 2: they'd probably be happy. But lots of luck. There's a
4:24
Speaker 2: lot of money coming to these guys and devors and
4:27
Speaker 2: a Damis have underperformed, So where's the value. If you're
4:31
Speaker 2: a team looking at them, maybe you think Okay, if
4:35
Speaker 2: we get our hands on ralphield Devers, he'll be better,
4:38
Speaker 2: and he's been better since the start of the season.
4:41
Speaker 2: But at the same time, it's five more years left,
4:46
Speaker 2: six more years left. There's a lot of time left
4:48
Speaker 2: on that deal, a lot of time left on a
4:49
Speaker 2: Damis's deal, And given the trends, I don't know that
4:53
Speaker 2: you can expect them to be much better players than
4:56
Speaker 2: they've been in the first part of this season.
5:00
Speaker 3: Ken Buster Posey's not afraid to act, right, He's he's
5:04
Speaker 3: one of the few gms. President of Baseball Ops. I
5:06
Speaker 3: forget his exact title, because all these they all have crazy.
5:08
Speaker 2: Times president baseps.
5:10
Speaker 3: Okay, so he's President of Baseball Ops. Right, he's not
5:12
Speaker 3: afraid to act. Is he that much different? Is that
5:15
Speaker 3: because he was a former player compared to some of
5:17
Speaker 3: these guys who are like, oh, I got to hold
5:18
Speaker 3: onto every little prospect and then it's too late, and
5:21
Speaker 3: then the prospects become suspects instead of players, Right he
5:25
Speaker 3: is he kind of I don't want to say a
5:26
Speaker 3: new wave. Is he more old school GM Dave Dombrowski
5:29
Speaker 3: style versus some of the new guys that are just
5:31
Speaker 3: afraid to make that trade that might hurt him ten
5:33
Speaker 3: years down the road.
5:36
Speaker 2: I would say that he doesn't look at it like
5:38
Speaker 2: some of the younger gms who are forever assessing risk
5:42
Speaker 2: and value and numbers on everything. He's not quite that.
5:47
Speaker 2: It's not that he ignores the numbers. No team ignores
5:50
Speaker 2: the numbers. But he certainly is someone who has yes
5:54
Speaker 2: shown he is not afraid. And I asked him about
5:56
Speaker 2: this in spring training. I sat down with him to interview.
5:59
Speaker 2: I said, hey, you've taken some big swings here, and
6:03
Speaker 2: he doesn't really look at it like that. He looks
6:05
Speaker 2: at it as this is the way I'm trying to
6:06
Speaker 2: improve my team. So he is not afraid, and he
6:10
Speaker 2: does have the security of being Buster Posey. If this
6:14
Speaker 2: doesn't work, it doesn't work, he can step down. He'll
6:16
Speaker 2: still be Buster Posey, likely Hall of Famer and all
6:19
Speaker 2: of that. So I would say, yes, Aj, he is
6:23
Speaker 2: more risk averse than some of the younger gms that
6:27
Speaker 2: are out there, but he doesn't necessarily see these things
6:31
Speaker 2: as risks. And if you look at them individually, and
6:35
Speaker 2: I wrote this earlier, every one of these moves he's made,
6:38
Speaker 2: and some of them have backfired, but every one of
6:40
Speaker 2: them was defensible at the time, Raphael Devers. Why did
6:44
Speaker 2: you trade for him? Well, you couldn't really sign a
6:45
Speaker 2: big free agent hitter. William Damas. He was one free
6:49
Speaker 2: agent hitter who took their money. And yes see probably
6:52
Speaker 2: was overpaid, But why was he overpaid Because they couldn't
6:55
Speaker 2: get anybody to take their money. So we all understood
6:59
Speaker 2: these the time, and I certainly expected Devers to be better,
7:03
Speaker 2: but so far it's not working that way. And one
7:06
Speaker 2: thing we know about Buster Posy, he's not going to
7:08
Speaker 2: simply look at this and say, you know what, let's
7:12
Speaker 2: just keep trying, keep going about it the way we're
7:14
Speaker 2: going about it. It's working well. No, if it's not
7:17
Speaker 2: working well, he's going to adjust.
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8:21
Speaker 2: All right.
8:22
Speaker 4: Somebody that's not afraid of making moves is Dave Nebrowski
8:25
Speaker 4: over in Philly. Can you give us a range? Because
8:29
Speaker 4: people look at Okay, they need an outfielder. Are they
8:32
Speaker 4: willing to go the route of all offensive outfielder, no defensive?
8:38
Speaker 4: Is it going to be trying to make that big
8:40
Speaker 4: splash move that Dave usually does, or is it something
8:43
Speaker 4: completely out of the ordinary that we haven't even heard
8:45
Speaker 4: about yet.
8:47
Speaker 2: I'm not sure Eric, to be perfectly honest, and right now,
8:51
Speaker 2: just last weekend they traded for Derek Hill of the
8:53
Speaker 2: White Sox. He is clearly not a big answer, but
8:56
Speaker 2: he can be part of a temporary solution and maybe
8:59
Speaker 2: even if for the rest of the season. Now they
9:02
Speaker 2: are a team that struck out essentially with the Delice Garcia.
9:06
Speaker 2: He was not good and then of course he got
9:08
Speaker 2: hurt and is now probably lost for the season. And
9:12
Speaker 2: even with Brandon Marsh becoming one of the league's best hitters,
9:15
Speaker 2: their outfield is way below par. So they do need
9:19
Speaker 2: to do something. And Dombrowski is someone who routinely will
9:24
Speaker 2: go for moves that he thinks will put his team
9:28
Speaker 2: over the top. That is how he does it. I
9:30
Speaker 2: remember one of his assistants one's telling me Dave likes
9:33
Speaker 2: to top off a club, and that is true. That
9:36
Speaker 2: is we've seen throughout his history. So yes, I expect
9:40
Speaker 2: him to go out there and try to get the
9:42
Speaker 2: best outfield or he can. I don't know who he's
9:44
Speaker 2: worried about offense defense. He wants offense out of that spot. Clearly,
9:48
Speaker 2: will he do it at the sacrifice of defense. He's
9:50
Speaker 2: done it before with Castillano's others, so I can see
9:54
Speaker 2: that happening. The question with the Phillies is their system
9:59
Speaker 2: is not all that great right now and are they
10:02
Speaker 2: going to be in position to make that kind of trade.
10:05
Speaker 2: They've made some pretty big trades in recent years. Duran
10:08
Speaker 2: was one, of course, and some others as well. I'm
10:11
Speaker 2: not sure with Aiden Miller, their shortstop prospect essentially having
10:16
Speaker 2: a lost year so far, that they really have enough
10:18
Speaker 2: to do something big. But guys like Dave Dombrowski and
10:22
Speaker 2: Aj Peler, they always seem to find players to trade
10:25
Speaker 2: and do the moves that they think are necessary.
10:29
Speaker 4: I always try to bring up the hypotheticals any chance
10:32
Speaker 4: Dave Dombrowski makes the big move by going into his
10:35
Speaker 4: clubhouse and saying, we can find offense at first base. Bryce,
10:39
Speaker 4: would you be willing to play the outfield for a
10:42
Speaker 4: half a season or is that ship sailed?
10:45
Speaker 2: I don't necessarily think that ship has sailed. And Bryce
10:49
Speaker 2: Harper has said in the past that if the Phillies
10:52
Speaker 2: acquired a quality first baseman that he would move back
10:57
Speaker 2: to the outfield on temporary basis. He was willing to
11:00
Speaker 2: do it, even for Pete Alonso if they had signed
11:02
Speaker 2: him as a free agent. I think it was the
11:04
Speaker 2: first time that Alonso was a free agent, so I
11:07
Speaker 2: don't know that I would rule it out. Bryce Harper's
11:10
Speaker 2: defensive metrics this season are not very good. I took
11:13
Speaker 2: to some Phillies people about that this week and they said, well,
11:17
Speaker 2: he actually is playing better than his metrics show. He
11:19
Speaker 2: had some issues early, he's kind of cleaned it up.
11:22
Speaker 2: Whatever Is he the elite defensive first baseman?
11:25
Speaker 3: No, he is not.
11:26
Speaker 2: So could he move back to the outfield. I'm sure
11:28
Speaker 2: he could, and that is one way to go about this.
11:32
Speaker 2: It would be temporary. In my estimation. It seems to
11:35
Speaker 2: me that he wants his long term position Bryce does
11:38
Speaker 2: to be first base, but he has left that door
11:41
Speaker 2: open in the past.
11:42
Speaker 3: Yes, Ken another team and now that we've had we
11:46
Speaker 3: already talked about today. Who can't seem to hit is
11:48
Speaker 3: the Padres. What are the Padres gonna do with this deadline?
11:50
Speaker 3: It's gonna be fascinating. Proler doesn't sit there and do nothing.
11:54
Speaker 3: He always is trying to wheel and deal. But do
11:56
Speaker 3: they have pieces to trade? It always seems like he
11:58
Speaker 3: finds those and can they find all on this market somewhere.
12:03
Speaker 2: The real question for starters is, with about seven weeks
12:06
Speaker 2: to go, is this team going to be worthy of reinforcement?
12:11
Speaker 2: And that's a real question right now. They have not
12:13
Speaker 2: hit for whatever reason. It's curious, right they have really
12:16
Speaker 2: good hitters, Machado, Merrill, all these guys. They should be
12:21
Speaker 2: better than where they are. We know that they know that.
12:24
Speaker 2: But if it's one of those seasons where it's not
12:27
Speaker 2: working well, then maybe he doesn't go all in and
12:30
Speaker 2: do his usual thing. We'll see in the coming weeks
12:35
Speaker 2: just how they play and just the approach that aj
12:37
Speaker 2: Preler is willing to take. Now. Does he have players
12:40
Speaker 2: to trade, Maybe not as many as before, but he
12:42
Speaker 2: always seems to find them. I don't believe they will
12:45
Speaker 2: trade Ethan Salas. He's their top catching prospect, one of
12:48
Speaker 2: the top catching prospects in the game. He has regained
12:51
Speaker 2: his status as that this season, and he is still
12:55
Speaker 2: so young and so promising. And that's a position where
12:58
Speaker 2: they are not exactly settled, so that would seemingly be
13:02
Speaker 2: something they would not do. But he does always seem
13:06
Speaker 2: to find players to move when he is trying to win. Now,
13:09
Speaker 2: I'm not saying he wouldn't be trying to win, but
13:13
Speaker 2: if they're not going to be a team that looks
13:14
Speaker 2: like they're going to be worthy, even with reinforcements, then
13:19
Speaker 2: what are you doing? You're spinning your wheels.
13:22
Speaker 4: He'm Bloom went to the Red Sox and in twenty
13:25
Speaker 4: twenty one they went to the playoffs. Hem Bloom now
13:28
Speaker 4: takes over with the Cardinals. I know he was kind
13:30
Speaker 4: of in the minor leagues last year, and it seems
13:33
Speaker 4: like the Cardinals are going to the playoffs again. If
13:35
Speaker 4: that continues. Does Heim Bloom need to be given more
13:39
Speaker 4: flowers for what he has done in two different locations,
13:42
Speaker 4: even though Red Sox fans or ownership wanted to push
13:46
Speaker 4: him out of Boston.
13:48
Speaker 2: Well, I've always believed he got a bad rap in
13:50
Speaker 2: Boston and that he did more good things than people
13:54
Speaker 2: gave him credit for. Traded for willia Or Bray, developed
13:57
Speaker 2: a drafted and developed Roman, Anthony Connolly early a number
14:02
Speaker 2: of others. I don't know if Peyton Peyton told he
14:05
Speaker 2: was after Marcella Meyer and Christian Campbell, who was still
14:09
Speaker 2: not made it, but he was part of the group
14:11
Speaker 2: of players that Heim Bloom brought in, so he was
14:14
Speaker 2: in a difficult spot there, as presidents of baseball operations
14:18
Speaker 2: gms often are. In Boston, you've got a team that
14:21
Speaker 2: wants to win, or an ownership that wants to win,
14:23
Speaker 2: an ownership wants to also keep the farm system flowing,
14:27
Speaker 2: and hein Bloom and my estimation kind of got caught
14:30
Speaker 2: in between. With those mixed messages that he was getting.
14:33
Speaker 2: There wasn't one clear direction, and that direction would seem
14:36
Speaker 2: to shift. So he's done a good job, or did
14:39
Speaker 2: a good job in Boston. This team is in large
14:45
Speaker 2: part the handiwork of John Mozelock, of course some of
14:47
Speaker 2: their younger players who are now coming to the fore,
14:50
Speaker 2: but Bloom deserves credit for finally committing to the direction
14:54
Speaker 2: that they took, which was rebuilding. They traded Arnaudo, traded Contrarast,
14:59
Speaker 2: traded Sunny Gray, traded Brandon Donovan, and now even after
15:04
Speaker 2: all that, they have a team that is competitive at
15:08
Speaker 2: the major league level, they have a much better farm system,
15:11
Speaker 2: and he's going to want to keep going and not
15:14
Speaker 2: necessarily push forward at a time when they still consider
15:18
Speaker 2: themselves working toward that better sustainable future. Yet even with
15:24
Speaker 2: all that, if they're in contention. If they are in
15:28
Speaker 2: seven weeks what they are right now. He's not going
15:31
Speaker 2: to ignore that. He can't ignore that. You can't look
15:33
Speaker 2: your players and your coaching staff and your fans in
15:36
Speaker 2: the eye and say, you know what, we're good this year,
15:39
Speaker 2: but i'd like to be better in two years. No,
15:42
Speaker 2: the opportunities to even make the playoffs are rare and
15:45
Speaker 2: you have to seize them. Doesn't mean you go all annie,
15:48
Speaker 2: you trade all your prospects, but you can do things.
15:52
Speaker 2: And there are other teams in this position as well,
15:54
Speaker 2: the White Sox, the Nationals, if they are still competitive,
15:59
Speaker 2: they're going to hand their rosters. They just might not
16:01
Speaker 2: do them in a meaningful dramatic way, but they'll try
16:04
Speaker 2: to tweak and they'll try to get better.
16:07
Speaker 3: There's my questions, Ken, Are you feeling okay? Are you sick?
16:11
Speaker 3: Have you felt under the weather for about the last
16:14
Speaker 3: thirty six hours, Ken, I have not, wow, because you
16:18
Speaker 3: gave the White Sox a lot of props the other day, Ken,
16:20
Speaker 3: so I just want to make sure that you weren't sick.
16:22
Speaker 3: Maybe you got bit by a mosquito or something you're buying.
16:27
Speaker 2: You've got White Sox derangement syndrome against people who you
16:31
Speaker 2: think might have been against the White Sox in the past.
16:34
Speaker 2: I'm not against any team. I'm not four any I
16:37
Speaker 2: cover the sport.
16:39
Speaker 3: Okay, well, what do you think the White Sox are
16:40
Speaker 3: gonna do? You kind of mention it there, you try
16:44
Speaker 3: to make little tweaks. Does a little tweak mean a
16:47
Speaker 3: bullpen arm, a starter? Another bat? Like? What does a
16:51
Speaker 3: tweak mean? Ken? I could tweak my hamstring and it
16:55
Speaker 3: doesn't mean a whole lot, right right, And.
16:59
Speaker 2: They would probably want to do all those teams. I
17:01
Speaker 2: don't want to mischaracterize this. They probably would want to
17:04
Speaker 2: do more than a tweak, but they don't want to
17:06
Speaker 2: do something I don't know major So the White Sox,
17:11
Speaker 2: they are a team that offensively, even without more Kami
17:15
Speaker 2: and Kyle Teel, has continued to score runs, continue to
17:19
Speaker 2: play really well. Their deficiency is in the pitching staff,
17:23
Speaker 2: both starting in relief, and I can see them trying
17:26
Speaker 2: to get both Frankly and who knows, maybe for a rental,
17:31
Speaker 2: even one like a Freddy Peralta. Maybe they're willing to
17:34
Speaker 2: trade one top prospect to get a guy like Paralta
17:38
Speaker 2: for a push. Doesn't seem like the path that they
17:41
Speaker 2: would go down. It's again a short term thing that
17:45
Speaker 2: might not even pay off. And what do you do
17:47
Speaker 2: in trading prospects when you need them? But they are
17:50
Speaker 2: a team that will draft number one in the draft
17:53
Speaker 2: in July, and they've got already a good number of
17:57
Speaker 2: middle infield types. Now, not all of them will reach
18:01
Speaker 2: the majors, not all of them will play for the
18:02
Speaker 2: White Sox, and at some point you'll have to pick
18:05
Speaker 2: and choose, especially if they draft one in July. But
18:10
Speaker 2: the question is are they ready to take that kind
18:13
Speaker 2: of step, because of course middle infielders can play other positions.
18:16
Speaker 2: They're among the most skilled athletes on the team, even
18:19
Speaker 2: ahead of catchers. So I don't know what they're going
18:23
Speaker 2: to do, and it's going to depend again, all of
18:25
Speaker 2: these things will depend on just how these teams are
18:28
Speaker 2: playing at the time. Are they still competitive or are
18:30
Speaker 2: they starting to fade? And does it appear to be
18:34
Speaker 2: something of a waste to go and make that kind
18:37
Speaker 2: of move.
18:39
Speaker 3: Ken, August eighth, You know what August eight does I donate?
18:43
Speaker 2: Is it your birthday? What is it?
18:45
Speaker 5: No?
18:45
Speaker 3: Ken, No, my birthday? You know my birthday? You know
18:47
Speaker 3: it's not August eight, you send You send me nothing
18:49
Speaker 3: every year, Ken, So we know this August eighth is
18:52
Speaker 3: the day that they're going to retire Ozzie Gain's number
18:55
Speaker 3: in Chicago. Do you know that Fox picked that game up?
18:59
Speaker 3: For Fox? It's against the Guardians? Ken, Will you be
19:03
Speaker 3: there with me to call that game?
19:07
Speaker 2: AJ, you're ahead of me because I don't have many
19:09
Speaker 2: assignments for August yet, I do. I've got nothing I'd
19:15
Speaker 2: like to be at that game? Is it? It's obviously
19:17
Speaker 2: in Chicago.
19:18
Speaker 3: I would like to Chicago. They're retiring Ausey's number. I
19:22
Speaker 3: may or may not have to speak before the game.
19:27
Speaker 3: Then I'm gonna have to what else.
19:28
Speaker 2: Is on our schedule that day? Do you know what's
19:30
Speaker 2: the other game?
19:32
Speaker 3: I don't know, Ken. I just worry about myself like
19:33
Speaker 3: most people should. If you just worry about yourself, this
19:35
Speaker 3: world will be a lot better place all.
19:37
Speaker 2: About Okay, Well, I'll check and when the World Cup
19:41
Speaker 2: is over, maybe I'll get my schedule.
19:43
Speaker 1: From those games.
19:46
Speaker 2: They're a little busy right now.
19:48
Speaker 3: I can usually find if you look on it, usually
19:50
Speaker 3: it tells you on m WIB which.
19:52
Speaker 1: Ones are Fox. Usually, I mean, Ken, there's a Braves
19:55
Speaker 1: Yankees matchup.
19:56
Speaker 3: Ken, you ain't missing Braves Yankees for Guardians White.
20:01
Speaker 2: Well, we might not have that game though, you don't
20:03
Speaker 2: know that that's true.
20:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just throwing games out there on the fly
20:07
Speaker 1: here right now. But I you know, Ken, I've been
20:09
Speaker 1: in the business a while. If I had to take
20:11
Speaker 1: a guess when I'm looking at the.
20:13
Speaker 3: Hold on, let me let me, let me, let me
20:15
Speaker 3: peruse something real real quick, Ken, Ken, to give.
20:20
Speaker 2: A speech, I might ask for special dispensation.
20:23
Speaker 3: And I mean right now, Houston, San Diego, Ken is one?
20:28
Speaker 2: Okay, I don't see that one.
20:31
Speaker 1: Giants maybe, but you don't have the schedule.
20:34
Speaker 3: I was looking at the Fox schedule, but has changed
20:36
Speaker 3: since I seen that.
20:37
Speaker 1: So all right, well, this this as riveting as this is. Ken,
20:41
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll table this and we can bring this into
20:43
Speaker 1: a conversation later in the week to go over the
20:45
Speaker 1: August Fox schedule for Ken.
20:48
Speaker 3: Orioles Rangers Orioles Rangers in the other game. Oo, you're
20:52
Speaker 3: definitely going to Texas really or Tigers Giants. Those are
20:57
Speaker 3: the three.
20:58
Speaker 1: I actually think he's gonna be.
21:00
Speaker 2: I do too.
21:02
Speaker 3: Oh, I can't wait. I'm gonna have I'm gonna have
21:04
Speaker 3: fans fired up as he can.
21:07
Speaker 2: I'll wear my AJ Praziski jersey so I can be
21:10
Speaker 2: the one.
21:11
Speaker 3: That's right, that's right. Can There'll be more than one
21:13
Speaker 3: that day.
21:14
Speaker 1: See if get ready, you better get that order in now.
21:18
Speaker 1: It's selling out for online.
21:20
Speaker 2: All right, They'll be more than one that day, Scott.
21:24
Speaker 3: Kid size, Ken, make sure you go when you go
21:26
Speaker 3: on Fanatics, you go kids size. Okay, you got it.
21:29
Speaker 2: AJ.
21:30
Speaker 3: I'd send you one of mine, but I don't want
21:31
Speaker 3: you to sleep in it.
21:32
Speaker 1: Ken, Thank you, good luck on your Pierzansky jersey search.
21:36
Speaker 1: Talk to you later this week.
21:37
Speaker 2: Thanks guys.
21:39
Speaker 1: That's at Senior Insider Ken Rosenthal. Yes, Trade Talk season.
21:43
Speaker 1: It's here Thursday, next episode of Fair Territory twelve thirty,
21:47
Speaker 1: East Coast Time, nine thirty. If you wake up on
21:49
Speaker 1: the West Coast and want a little action on asking
21:52
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Speaker 1: Sea Geek. Let's talk to Bacs Sibat writer and Snake's
23:12
Speaker 1: Territory co host Jack Summers with us right now. Jack,
23:15
Speaker 1: great to see you. Love the hat. As you can see,
23:17
Speaker 1: I've got the beautiful Snake's Territory shirt too, so let's
23:20
Speaker 1: talk about this team. I like to do just the
23:22
Speaker 1: generic catch up here first. Where are we at? How
23:25
Speaker 1: are we feeling about the Diamondbacks? Like, do they feel
23:28
Speaker 1: as if they've hit their expectations so far as we
23:31
Speaker 1: get close to the halfway mark of the season.
23:34
Speaker 5: Well, they certainly don't feel that way. Last night, talking
23:36
Speaker 5: to Tory Leavello, he said, you know, we've yet to
23:38
Speaker 5: play our best baseball. He's still very much dissatisfied with
23:43
Speaker 5: the lack of consistency the team is shown, and you know,
23:46
Speaker 5: justifiably so. They could be several games better, but they've
23:50
Speaker 5: just been up and down with their situational hitting. They
23:53
Speaker 5: were leading the league up until late May, and then
23:56
Speaker 5: they just went on a horrific slump with runners in
23:58
Speaker 5: scoring position hit less than hundred for three weeks, and
24:02
Speaker 5: so that cost them a number of games. I mean,
24:03
Speaker 5: they could easily be five, six seven games over five hundred,
24:07
Speaker 5: you know, instead they're two. So you know, they're pretty
24:10
Speaker 5: far off from where they need to be if they're
24:12
Speaker 5: going to really make a run at this thing.
24:14
Speaker 3: Jack, doesn't every manager say that though, oh, or haven't
24:17
Speaker 3: played our best baseball? I mean the nineteen twenty seven
24:20
Speaker 3: Yankees were probably whoever their manager was, they're one hundred,
24:22
Speaker 3: you know, the two thousand and one manors, one hundred
24:25
Speaker 3: and sixteen wins. Loop Penel's like, probably, I don't. We
24:28
Speaker 3: haven't played our best ball yet, right, I mean, doesn't
24:30
Speaker 3: every manager say that to try to keep the team
24:32
Speaker 3: going in the right direction, to keep them motivated, because honestly,
24:35
Speaker 3: the Timebacks have been playing pretty well well.
24:38
Speaker 5: They've been playing really well when they face a sub
24:40
Speaker 5: five hundred team, and anytime they face a good team,
24:44
Speaker 5: they're like absolutely just about one of the worst records
24:47
Speaker 5: in the league against teams over five hundred, So, you know,
24:50
Speaker 5: while they have the best record against the teams below
24:53
Speaker 5: five hundred. So it's really been very stark for them
24:57
Speaker 5: as far as where they're getting your wins from. They
24:59
Speaker 5: have to start beating some better pitchers and better teams
25:03
Speaker 5: to really be a legitimate contender. Of my view, they're ten.
25:07
Speaker 3: And twenty one against teams over five hundred.
25:10
Speaker 4: That's crazy. That's a crazy stat. But I actually didn't
25:14
Speaker 4: run into that. I ran into the road and home split.
25:17
Speaker 3: Is there an.
25:18
Speaker 4: Issue that they're coming up with that they're having such
25:21
Speaker 4: struggles on the road compared to so much success at
25:24
Speaker 4: home or do they just really enjoy or play better
25:27
Speaker 4: at home and the road is who they are.
25:31
Speaker 5: I think that's a little bit random. Also might have
25:33
Speaker 5: to do with opponents as well, But you know, some
25:35
Speaker 5: of these road trips are tough. You know, it's always
25:37
Speaker 5: tough to go east. You go into Miami and then
25:39
Speaker 5: you go into Cincinnati. You look at that and you say, well,
25:42
Speaker 5: they should probably win four or five of those games,
25:44
Speaker 5: and they end up getting swept in Miami. So that
25:46
Speaker 5: was that was really tied back to where they were
25:49
Speaker 5: with their situational hitting. I think there's no specific reason
25:53
Speaker 5: I could pinpoint for why they've been better so much
25:56
Speaker 5: better at home than on the road, other than the
25:59
Speaker 5: fact that, you know, Corbyn Carroll hits an amazing amount
26:02
Speaker 5: of triples and really tears it up in that ballpark.
26:06
Speaker 3: Jack is Corbyn Carroll. He's there. All Stars see their
26:09
Speaker 3: All Star I mean, could tell Marte has really turned
26:12
Speaker 3: it on. Vargas led the league in hitting.
26:14
Speaker 2: For so long.
26:15
Speaker 3: Is Cavin Carroll going to be their All Star representative
26:19
Speaker 3: here in July and Philadelphia?
26:21
Speaker 5: That's virtually a lock. I mean, he's the guy, you know,
26:24
Speaker 5: he's the best player on the team. He's got, you know,
26:27
Speaker 5: still over a nine hundred OPS. It's been a little
26:29
Speaker 5: up and down for him at times, but overall he's
26:32
Speaker 5: just performed at that level for most of the season.
26:35
Speaker 5: It's a pretty clear cut he's the guy that's going
26:37
Speaker 5: to represent this team. In the All Star voting, he
26:40
Speaker 5: only came in I think eighth am on outfielders, which
26:43
Speaker 5: is pretty amazing to me. I can see why he's
26:45
Speaker 5: maybe not in the top two or three, but it's
26:47
Speaker 5: a little odd to see him all the way down today.
26:50
Speaker 5: So there's no question that he's going to be selected
26:52
Speaker 5: to the All Star team. Whether or not they'll have
26:54
Speaker 5: a second selection remains to be seen. Marte got hot,
26:58
Speaker 5: but then he really cooled off again. You know, his
27:01
Speaker 5: OPS is in the mid seven hundreds. He's not really
27:04
Speaker 5: kind of getting it done consistently enough. A lot of
27:07
Speaker 5: it was bad luck for a very long time. I mean,
27:10
Speaker 5: he was just hitting the ball on the screws over
27:12
Speaker 5: and over and over again, right at people. But there's
27:15
Speaker 5: also been more chase to his game than in the past.
27:19
Speaker 5: He's on pace to pay play a career high number
27:24
Speaker 5: of games and played appearances, you know, he's only played
27:27
Speaker 5: one less game than Perdomo and Carol, so he's out
27:29
Speaker 5: there every day. Had a great defensive night last night.
27:33
Speaker 5: Just the offensive results haven't been consistent there and he's
27:36
Speaker 5: pretty far down in the voting. I don't think he's
27:38
Speaker 5: going to make the All.
27:38
Speaker 2: Star team this year. Jack.
27:40
Speaker 4: Do you know why Tory Leavello felt the need to
27:44
Speaker 4: say that katel Marte was a good teammate.
27:50
Speaker 5: Well, I mean, they defend him when there's issues. He
27:54
Speaker 5: doesn't really get the benefit of the doubt. He had
27:57
Speaker 5: a day off against the Dodgers when Otani was pitching,
28:01
Speaker 5: so he got otani itis for one game according to
28:05
Speaker 5: most folks. And look, you guys have played, you know,
28:07
Speaker 5: at this level and been players in a Major league clubhouse.
28:11
Speaker 5: Him asking to be out take a night off during
28:15
Speaker 5: that series and for that particular game clearly didn't sit
28:18
Speaker 5: well with at least some of the veterans in the clubhouse.
28:20
Speaker 5: On the other hand, you know, in addition to Toy
28:24
Speaker 5: coming out and defending him, Corbyn Carroll came out and said, hey,
28:27
Speaker 5: this is just a media creation. He's fine in the clubhouse.
28:31
Speaker 5: I think that with to tell you kind of have
28:33
Speaker 5: a guy that's a little bit like a Ferrari, you know,
28:35
Speaker 5: it can be a little finicky. But he's got a
28:38
Speaker 5: long history of back issues and hamstring issues, and they
28:41
Speaker 5: do need to be careful with him. You know, he
28:44
Speaker 5: had a stress reaction twenty nineteen. He had a couple
28:47
Speaker 5: of consecutive seasons with just a ton of hamstring issues.
28:50
Speaker 5: I think that giving him a day off once in
28:53
Speaker 5: a while is not a big deal. And if you
28:54
Speaker 5: look at his games played and played appearances, he's played
28:57
Speaker 5: almost every game. So I just think that in this
29:00
Speaker 5: case that it was a little bit of an overreaction.
29:02
Speaker 5: Maybe somebody spoke to somebody. It didn't happen to come
29:05
Speaker 5: my way, you know, although I'm in the clubhouse, nobody
29:08
Speaker 5: said to me this guy, you know, he's a malinger
29:11
Speaker 5: or anything like that. So I think at that point,
29:13
Speaker 5: you know, Tory needs to come out, defend his player,
29:16
Speaker 5: try to keep him, you know, in the right frame
29:18
Speaker 5: of mind, to get the most out of him. He's
29:20
Speaker 5: clearly not an easy guy to manage in that regard.
29:23
Speaker 5: He's you know, emotional and so forth.
29:26
Speaker 1: But aren't we all.
29:28
Speaker 4: I mean, I hear what you're saying, and that he's
29:30
Speaker 4: got to defend him. But how many other times have
29:32
Speaker 4: you heard when you're covering the team players asking for
29:35
Speaker 4: a day off. I mean, the fact that that came
29:38
Speaker 4: out based on what some other people wrote, is that
29:43
Speaker 4: is that a normal thing?
29:47
Speaker 5: I think again, like, look, you've been a player in
29:51
Speaker 5: a major league clubhouse. I don't know how normal it
29:53
Speaker 5: is for a player to go to a manager and say, Hey,
29:56
Speaker 5: I'm beat up, I can't go today. You have to
29:59
Speaker 5: tell me that, I mean, because I'm not in that
30:01
Speaker 5: trainer's room. You know, this was there was a discussion.
30:04
Speaker 5: I know for a fact that it was a discussion
30:06
Speaker 5: between Katel and the medical staff, you know, and he's
30:10
Speaker 5: just said he you know, he was hurting and he
30:12
Speaker 5: needed a day off. So you guys tell me you're
30:15
Speaker 5: the players. How often does that actually happen? I can't
30:18
Speaker 5: really speak to that as much as I'm in the clubhouse.
30:22
Speaker 5: You know how it is nowadays you walk in the
30:24
Speaker 5: clubhouse and there's nobody there. They they're all off at
30:27
Speaker 5: meetings and in the batting cages, and you know, in
30:30
Speaker 5: the trainer's room. They have a very good system now
30:33
Speaker 5: to pretty much duck the media, and we most of
30:36
Speaker 5: the time really only get them in scrums and you know,
30:38
Speaker 5: group sessions, So it's a little tougher to actually dig
30:41
Speaker 5: deep on that, unless you know you're Bob Nightingale, who
30:45
Speaker 5: has a little bit better sources than I do.
30:47
Speaker 3: Quite frankly, Jack, I mean, yeah, go ahead, no GOI
30:53
Speaker 3: I mean, listen. I've seen guys ask out on days,
30:56
Speaker 3: but then there's always that little I mean krats, Am
30:59
Speaker 3: I wrong? Oh he doesn't want to face And I
31:01
Speaker 3: don't know can tell Martelle other than I've said hello
31:03
Speaker 3: to him a couple of times and I played, but
31:05
Speaker 3: I played with guys that hey, and we used to
31:08
Speaker 3: joke about it, like, hey, you got hey dro ititis
31:11
Speaker 3: or sale ititis or Randy Johnson IDAs or whatever it was.
31:15
Speaker 3: You know, Nolan Ryan Idis Ryan IDAs was a big
31:17
Speaker 3: one in the eighties and earth and nineties, Like nobody
31:20
Speaker 3: wanted to face Nolan Ryan. So I'm not saying that,
31:23
Speaker 3: but like the fact that I don't know, especially he
31:27
Speaker 3: was hot too at the time and the Dodgers were
31:29
Speaker 3: in first place and they're trying to I'm not I'm
31:31
Speaker 3: not gonna say anything on it because I'm not in
31:34
Speaker 3: that clubhouse. But yes, have guys asked out before. Yes,
31:37
Speaker 3: do guys then have murmurs and whispers behind them or
31:40
Speaker 3: even to their face teams? I was on absolutely.
31:44
Speaker 5: Yeah. One other little wrinkle on this, you know, from
31:47
Speaker 5: the way Tory described it, I think that he had
31:50
Speaker 5: actually asked out the night before and Tory said, no,
31:55
Speaker 5: I need you to play tonight. I'll give you tomorrow off.
31:58
Speaker 5: And you know, look, he Toy's never gonna admit. But
32:02
Speaker 5: if you're looking at that four game series with the
32:03
Speaker 5: Dodgers and you have to pick one game that you're
32:06
Speaker 5: probably almost certainly gonna lose, it's gonna be the one
32:08
Speaker 5: with at Tohani pitching, and so, you know, and they
32:12
Speaker 5: got smoked, they got you know, shut out seven or nothing.
32:15
Speaker 2: I think.
32:16
Speaker 5: So is that something that a manager's going to say publicly, No,
32:20
Speaker 5: there's no way he's gonna wave the white flag. But
32:23
Speaker 5: if you have to pick a game, it's actually the
32:25
Speaker 5: one that you probably have very little chance to win.
32:27
Speaker 5: And that might have been it. So maybe that was
32:29
Speaker 5: a manager's choice to push it off one day instead
32:32
Speaker 5: of letting him take off the second game of the series,
32:35
Speaker 5: let him take off the game against Otani that they're
32:37
Speaker 5: probably not going to win anyway.
32:40
Speaker 4: Good tell Marte is one and maybe and maybe I'm
32:43
Speaker 4: making a mountain out of a molehill here based on
32:45
Speaker 4: what you're saying, but he's an MVP candidate for plenty
32:49
Speaker 4: of years of his career.
32:50
Speaker 3: Is there somebody on this team that.
32:52
Speaker 4: Would be that guy that what AJ said, like, maybe
32:56
Speaker 4: say something to his face or is that not how
32:58
Speaker 4: this team works? And that's why I asked you if,
33:01
Speaker 4: like other guys on the team, you had heard other
33:03
Speaker 4: guys on the on the Diamondbacks have done this.
33:07
Speaker 5: Yeah, my sense is that there might be a guy
33:10
Speaker 5: or two that could do that. You know, again, you
33:13
Speaker 5: guys been in locker rooms. It's it's I think it's
33:15
Speaker 5: a little tougher to say for a veteran pitcher to
33:19
Speaker 5: go and have that conversation with a position player, it
33:22
Speaker 5: usually has to be another position player, you know, in
33:25
Speaker 5: this case, maybe even a Latin player. Perhaps if Carlos
33:30
Speaker 5: Santana wasn't hurt and he was, you know, not on
33:33
Speaker 5: rehab as Simon and Reno, H'd have been that guy.
33:36
Speaker 5: I know back in the day, Christian Walker could have
33:39
Speaker 5: been that guy very easily. But you know, right now
33:43
Speaker 5: he could tell's kind of one of the elder statesmen, right,
33:46
Speaker 5: lordus Guriel Junior is not really a real vocal, you know,
33:50
Speaker 5: type of person that's probably going to be aggressive in
33:53
Speaker 5: that way and trying to get a player in line.
33:55
Speaker 5: Maybe catcher James McCann could do that, but he's on
33:58
Speaker 5: the iel and he's not been in the club house lately,
34:00
Speaker 5: so you know, they don't really seem to have that
34:04
Speaker 5: type of leadership in the clubhouse. If that's a defect
34:08
Speaker 5: in the clubhouse, that would be the one for me.
34:11
Speaker 3: Look, first of all, I don't want to I want
34:12
Speaker 3: to make this good. We're not taking shots at Catel Marteto.
34:15
Speaker 3: I don't know katel Marte. Like I said, Kratz doesn't
34:17
Speaker 3: know ktel Marte. We're just teams are I was on
34:19
Speaker 3: the pass and teams crafts are on in the past.
34:21
Speaker 3: I know how I was handled today's it could be
34:23
Speaker 3: totally different. Jack in their clubbus, I don't know. So
34:25
Speaker 3: I want to make that abundantly clear that we are
34:27
Speaker 3: not taking shots at Cato. I actually think he's a
34:29
Speaker 3: hell of a player and I would love him and vs.
34:32
Speaker 3: Tani's a hell of a matchup. That's what I tune
34:34
Speaker 3: in for. Right, So anyways, we're gonna move on past that.
34:37
Speaker 3: We're gonna talk about something a little bit better.
34:39
Speaker 5: Now.
34:39
Speaker 3: We got a guy that comes on the show regularly.
34:41
Speaker 3: He's one of our favorites, Paul Seawall. What has he
34:43
Speaker 3: meant to this team? I mean he's still getting it done.
34:46
Speaker 3: He's saving games. People look at his stuff and say,
34:48
Speaker 3: how the heck does this guy come in and save games?
34:50
Speaker 3: But he's getting it done this year for the Snakes.
34:53
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's been incredible. Why eighteen for nineteen? I mean
34:56
Speaker 5: we talk about the All Star Game. If he keeps
34:58
Speaker 5: this up for another month, he's gonna be on All
35:00
Speaker 5: Star team. I mean, if he leads the league in
35:02
Speaker 5: saves and keeps his er about where it's at, then
35:06
Speaker 5: why wouldn't he be. It's really been a great run
35:08
Speaker 5: for him. I mean, he gets it done with deception.
35:11
Speaker 5: We have an article up on Arizona Diamondbacks on SI.
35:15
Speaker 5: I got to interview him with him last night. I
35:17
Speaker 5: kind of passed that audio onto our publisher and let
35:20
Speaker 5: him write it up. I was working on other things,
35:21
Speaker 5: but Paul, you know he talked about back in twenty
35:26
Speaker 5: twenty twenty one, he kind of figured out look, I've
35:28
Speaker 5: got to be a deception guy. He comes at it
35:30
Speaker 5: with that low arm angle. Everyone's expecting a sinker, but
35:33
Speaker 5: he's thrown at the top of the zone. He gets
35:35
Speaker 5: right on the pitch, and so it's only ninety one
35:37
Speaker 5: and a half miles an hour. But you know, you
35:40
Speaker 5: look at the weak contact and the pop ups and
35:44
Speaker 5: mostly weak fly balls, and of course a ton of
35:46
Speaker 5: strikeouts and swing and miss. It's amazing. You kind of
35:50
Speaker 5: put him alongside Mason Miller and you look at like
35:53
Speaker 5: the expected batting averages and things like that. On his fastball,
35:56
Speaker 5: it's like, you know, he's right right alongside Mason Miller
36:00
Speaker 5: and there's ten miles an hour difference in the speed
36:02
Speaker 5: of their fastball. So and he's such a good dude.
36:05
Speaker 5: I mean, he's such a good person and fun to
36:07
Speaker 5: talk to and self effacing and he's humble. So you know,
36:10
Speaker 5: you always root for a guy like that to have success.
36:13
Speaker 5: So seeing him doing what he's doing for the Diamondbacks
36:16
Speaker 5: right now on a human level, gives a lot of satisfaction.
36:19
Speaker 5: And boy, it's what they need. I mean, you know
36:21
Speaker 5: they're scraping through it. I mean, if you look at
36:24
Speaker 5: a lot of the underlying stuff. For example, the biggest
36:27
Speaker 5: difference maybe between the d Backs and the Angels is
36:30
Speaker 5: you know where they are with closing Sea Wall's eighteen
36:33
Speaker 5: for nineteen and meanwhile the Angels have seven saves and
36:37
Speaker 5: fourteen blown saves. So you know that's the biggest difference
36:40
Speaker 5: in the two teams right now.
36:42
Speaker 4: All right, Well, let's go to two guys who are
36:45
Speaker 4: making quite a bit of money in Diamondbacks standards, in Merril.
36:48
Speaker 3: Kelly and Zach Allen.
36:51
Speaker 4: Is that where Tory Leavello is saying, Okay, we should
36:56
Speaker 4: be We're actually not playing as well as we could
37:00
Speaker 4: right now because they think those guys will turn it around,
37:03
Speaker 4: or has the track record been Zach Collins, maybe this
37:08
Speaker 4: is where he's at right now, at this point.
37:09
Speaker 3: In his career.
37:11
Speaker 5: Yeah, with Zach in particular, you know that they made
37:14
Speaker 5: a decision to bring him back, right I think it's
37:16
Speaker 5: twenty two million with a bunch of deferred money net
37:19
Speaker 5: present value eighteen million. You know, that's a big chunk
37:22
Speaker 5: of change for this team. And I think they expected,
37:27
Speaker 5: based on his second half last year, that he would
37:30
Speaker 5: have more success and unfortunately it's not been there. It's
37:33
Speaker 5: not been consistent he is coming off a quality star
37:37
Speaker 5: at six innings, three runs, but you see there as
37:40
Speaker 5: eras you know, well up over five. His whip is
37:43
Speaker 5: over one point five. He's just struggling. He's not getting
37:46
Speaker 5: any swing and miss on the fastball. And it's weird
37:49
Speaker 5: because he's his fastball velocity is about the same. It
37:52
Speaker 5: hasn't really changed, but just the quality of the pitch
37:55
Speaker 5: and the ability to get swing and miss on it
37:57
Speaker 5: isn't there as curveball isn't getting the same depth it
38:00
Speaker 5: kind of it's just not getting the chase and swing
38:02
Speaker 5: and miss on it that you would expect. And you know,
38:05
Speaker 5: it's all come home to roost and it's been a rough,
38:08
Speaker 5: you know, one and a half year run here for Zach.
38:11
Speaker 5: So I mean, clearly he needs to get turned around,
38:13
Speaker 5: but he's not going to be DF eight or anything
38:15
Speaker 5: like that. You know, they just don't have enough depth
38:17
Speaker 5: in the rotation they're going to send him out there.
38:19
Speaker 5: I mean, the worst case scenario for Zach Gallon it
38:22
Speaker 5: would be that he at some point got sent to
38:24
Speaker 5: the bullpen, but they don't have the depth to do
38:26
Speaker 5: that either, So they just got a ride with it
38:28
Speaker 5: and do the best that they can and get out
38:30
Speaker 5: of him what they need. With Merrill Kelly, it's a
38:32
Speaker 5: little bit different. He had a back injury and spring
38:35
Speaker 5: training intercostal nerve irritation, and I think that they probably
38:39
Speaker 5: brought him back a little bit too soon. He only
38:42
Speaker 5: had like one real rehab assignment in his first four
38:45
Speaker 5: games back. He's spraying the ball all over the place.
38:47
Speaker 5: Just did not have his command and control. And that's
38:50
Speaker 5: Meryl Kelly's game. I mean, he has to throw strikes.
38:53
Speaker 5: That's come around better since those first fourth starts. He
38:58
Speaker 5: did have one other blow up out recently, but his
39:02
Speaker 5: most recent outing was a good one. I think six
39:04
Speaker 5: inning is such a couple of runs, so he's probably
39:06
Speaker 5: turned it around. I feel a little bit better about
39:08
Speaker 5: Merrill Kelly to be able to, you know, maybe hang
39:11
Speaker 5: in there with the sub for e. R A for
39:12
Speaker 5: the rest of the season.
39:15
Speaker 3: Jack, what about Walt Schmidt? You mentioned you mentioned not
39:18
Speaker 3: getting sent down, but he got sent down recently. Where
39:21
Speaker 3: does he still stand on the hierarchy with the Diamondbacks organization?
39:25
Speaker 3: When Guriel came off, Watchman got sent down. I was
39:27
Speaker 3: there when he made his debut. There was all this
39:29
Speaker 3: hype he did okay, but is he still the top
39:32
Speaker 3: prospect that they think he's going to be.
39:35
Speaker 2: I think he can be.
39:36
Speaker 5: He has to make some adjustments. The scouts talk about
39:39
Speaker 5: a little bit too steep of a swing path leading
39:42
Speaker 5: to some more swing and miss. I think it was
39:44
Speaker 5: more about decisions at the plate, not being aggressive enough
39:48
Speaker 5: in the middle of the zone, and a little bit
39:50
Speaker 5: too swing happy on Chase. You know, just teams figured out, Hey,
39:54
Speaker 5: we're going to throw this guy a ton of spin.
39:55
Speaker 5: I'm gonna stop throwing him fastballs, and he wasn't able
39:58
Speaker 5: to make the counter adjustment QUI quickly enough.
40:01
Speaker 2: You know.
40:01
Speaker 5: Walshman came up when they traded Alec Thomas. They also
40:05
Speaker 5: have Tommy Troy and Jorge Barossa. Jorge baross A great
40:08
Speaker 5: defender fifth outfielder, but does not hit. Tommy Troy, maybe
40:13
Speaker 5: awkwardly for the Diamondbacks, had hit with a little bit
40:15
Speaker 5: of power. Since he's been up, He's hit a couple
40:17
Speaker 5: of home runs, whereas Walshmint hasn't homerge yet. But Troy
40:22
Speaker 5: is playing time is going to be limited at some
40:23
Speaker 5: point once Guriel stops dhing and plays more left field,
40:28
Speaker 5: and they really want walschmant to play every day and
40:30
Speaker 5: get every day at that. So I don't know how
40:32
Speaker 5: you figure out how to hit major league spin playing
40:36
Speaker 5: you know, in the PCL and in Reno. And there's
40:39
Speaker 5: definitely a criticism to be made that the Diamondbacks are
40:42
Speaker 5: not being patient enough with some of their younger players.
40:44
Speaker 5: They also optioned out Jose Fernandez, who you know has
40:48
Speaker 5: a lot of tools, but was struggling to layoff the
40:51
Speaker 5: spin as well. So I think that Walschmidt will be
40:54
Speaker 5: back soon, maybe in a month or so, certainly no
40:57
Speaker 5: later than the trade deadline. He's going to be back
40:59
Speaker 5: up here or it's just a matter of what he
41:01
Speaker 5: does and what adjustments he's able to make. But again,
41:04
Speaker 5: how do you adjust and figure out major league spin
41:07
Speaker 5: playing in Reno? I don't know.
41:10
Speaker 3: That's a good point.
41:12
Speaker 1: It's a big gap between Triple A and MLB. It's
41:15
Speaker 1: fun to watch on defense, so I hope he gets
41:17
Speaker 1: back up there soon. He's a spark plug out there.
41:20
Speaker 1: He's fun. Jack good stuff Snake's Territory Shop dot com.
41:24
Speaker 1: If you like the logo and you're a Snakes fan. Otherwise,
41:28
Speaker 1: make sure you subscribe to the show. Give them love
41:30
Speaker 1: even if you're not a Dbacks fan. Jack's a nice guy,
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Speaker 1: so let's let's give Snake's territory a little bit of love.
41:36
Speaker 1: They do good stuff over there, Jack, great catching up
41:38
Speaker 1: with you. Thank you so much for the info.
41:39
Speaker 5: We'll catch you good to talk to you all. Take
41:42
Speaker 5: care of me too,