Ain’t No Fang: Arizona Diamondbacks finally play the Padres, Tricia Whitaker joins the show
the Ain’t No Fang podcast from Arizona Sports ain’t No Fang hello welcome into Ain’t No Fang Arizona Sports Diamondbacks podcast here on a Friday morning before a huge series against the San Diego Padres’s over at Chase Field it starts uh Friday night at 6:40 and um good show for you planned today we’re going to start off by introducing a new segment uh which is going to be called do your research where I will take you uh on my computer screen as we go over you know what there is to know about this Padres’s team the Diamondbacks are going to play for the first time this year which is weird because uh as a division rival you don’t expect to not play a team for the first 2 and 1/2 months of the season but it is June 13th and they are finally going to have their first cracks at the San Diego Padres’s um and then later in the show we will talk to Trisha Whitaker who is going to be uh on the broadcast tonight for Apple TV Plus um that’s where that game could be found on TV tonight it’s going to be on Fox tomorrow on the Saturday night game so it’s going to be a lot of uh national eyes on Chase Field this weekend as the Diamondbacks play the Padres’s uh so without further ado let’s go to the screen right now so the Dimebacks and Padres’s right uh the National League West has been pretty bunched up at the top for most of the season and for the Padres’s uh right now they are two games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 38 and 29 record they just lost two out of three against the Dodgers uh over the or earlier this week uh at San at Petco Park so let’s go through what has made the Padres successful and what are some of their shortcomings so far this season so as I mentioned they are 38 and 29 the Diamondbacks are 34 and 34 the Padres’s right now own the third wild card spot so the Dbacks are four and a half games back of a playoff spot and the Padres’s are the team that they have to catch right now there’s a few in between that they’re going to have to jump but this is a good opportunity for the Diamondbacks to really gain some ground potentially in the wild card race and build off of what they were able to do against Seattle over the week when they were able to sweep their inner league fo so let’s go to stats and specifically let’s look at the team stats let’s keep it as as you know kind of general an overview as we can um we’re going to stick to mlb.com and the Padres’s page on baseball reference for now graphs and baseball and all that but we’re just going to keep it as simple as we can right now so let’s go to team stats and see where they’re at so for the Diamondbacks currently fourth in the league in scoring with 346 runs through 68 games you got to go down a little bit for the Padres’s they are 20th in the league in runs which may be a little bit surprising giving the star power uh and we’ll kind of dig into some more specifics on why that may be the case later in doubles the Diamondbacks are second for the Padres’s you got to go down to 23rd home runs this season the Diamondbacks are third only trailing the Yankees and the Dodgers while the Padres’s you got to go down to 26th in the league with only 57 home runs overall um team batting average the downbacks are sixth the Padres’s are 15th team OPS the Diamondbacks are third again behind the Yankees and the Dodgers while the Padres’s are all the way down at 20th so what is sort of the situation here why is that the case let’s go to their baseball reference page as a team um now we’re going to use OPS+ just to kind of keep this simple it’s a metric that puts everybody on an even playing field 100 is league average it factors in you know ballparks that teams play in so that’s it’s just kind of a good way to compare teams on different player uh players on different teams who play in different environments so let’s go to that manny Machado is having an unbelievable se uh season and you know kind of similar to what the Diamondbacks face with the Mariners and Cal Raleigh there’s very clearly like a guy who’s hotter than everybody else that you’re going to have to watch out for and that is Manny Machado jake Cronorth’s had a good year uh missed a little bit of time but is back now jack Samro same deal had a really good year missed a little bit of time but he’s healthy uh Fernando Tatis Jr 120 that’s still good it’s a little bit lower than you’d think for Fernando Tatis Jr but at the same time that’s you know it’s nothing to be alarmed at by any means he’s still a very good player uh and then Gavin Sheets has been pretty good for them overall but once you get past kind of the top of the lineup as you can see by some of these numbers again league average is 100 um they really start to dip down and that’s sort of the top heaviness of this lineup and where that comes to shine and you know when you look at what they were able to do recently uh let’s go from year to date to last 15 days the last two weeks um the Padres’s are last in the league with the 604 team OPS go to player uh all teams go down to the Padres’s and let’s go last 15 days and look at some of these OPS’s manny Machado 990 he’s on fire he’s hitting .346 in the last two weeks but then you go down you know Luis Arise has been struggling a little bit he’s only hitting 231 in this span xander Bogarts is just barely hitting over the Mendoza line jay Cronworth is a little bit under the Mendoza line jackson Merrell’s hitting 240 but not quite the same power you’d expect fernando Tatis is hitting below the Mendoza line at 190 so um you know it’s a Padres’s team with a lot of star power but kind of similar to the Mariners it’s it’s a topheavy lineup with one guy who’s hitting a little bit better than everybody else uh and so you’re really gonna have to watch out for Manny Machado this weekend in particular they have a lot of more dangerous hitters but he’s the guy to watch out for um let’s go to the pitching because this is where the Padres’s have really shined this season so overall in team uh RRA the Padres’s are sixth at 344 this year the Diamondbacks have to scroll down to 25th because they’re 477 um whip the Padres’s are 11th in the league in batting average against they are fourth in the league tied with the New York Mets at 226 again the Diamondbacks you have to kind of scroll down towards the bottom there they are 18th in batting average uh against and in whip the Dimebacks are 22nd so there’s a huge gap in you know the Diamondbacks offensively versus the Padres’s offensively in production this year but at the same time there’s a huge gap in the Padres’s pitching staff versus the Diamondbacks pitching staff this year and a huge reason for this is because the D uh the Padres’s bullpen might be the best in the league uh let’s split it up to I think I might have passed it here let’s see let’s go back down to reliever erra for relievers the Padres’s are third at 314 the Diamondbacks all the way down to 27th at 521 and let’s go to this bullpen because um it’s pretty stacked robert Suarez their closer leads the league with saves with 21 of them jason Adams who leads the league in appearances has a 159 RA and you just look down Jeremiah Estrada has had a good year and Yuki Matsui and Adrien Morona’s lefties have had good seasons um it’s it’s a deep bullpen and it’s not a team you want to be trailing going into the later innings um starting rotation it’s a little bit banged up michael King is not available he’s on the injured list um Udarvish is also on the injured list dylan CE uh who has been turning it around he just come off a really good start against the Dodgers he’s not going to be pitching this weekend at Chase Field who the Diamondbacks are going to have to worry about is Steven Kolk uh in the first game and then the Padres’s you know biggest offseason acquisition for their rotation Nick Paveta he’s going to be the Sunday starter so let’s highlight Steven K first cuz that’s what the Diamondback’s going to see first um as you can see he’s seven games pitched this year he’s got a 30 RA his last two starts have both gone for five and two/3 innings with no earned runs this season which have you know obviously helped his numbers before then uh he was struggling clearly a little bit but he’s kind of on a hot streak right now um 30 RA 398 FIP if you’re familiar it’s fielding independent pitching it’s it’s kind of a predictor of performance um so perhaps he’s getting a little bit fortunate and you go down to advanced here he’s not a guy who’s going to strike out a lot of guys 16.8% compared to league average which is up over 22% um walks he’s at 9.2% which a little above average as well so that’s who the Diamondback’s going to be facing in the first game and then Nick Pavetto has had a great year um 13 starts 348 erra that’s who they’re going to see in the finale for the Diamondbacks it’s going to be Ryan Nelson in the opener followed by Zack Allen and then Mel Kelly so you know in terms of you know name recognition Diamondbacks are going to have the advantage pitching wise sunday’s pitching matchup should be fascinating between Kelly and Pavetta um but yeah it’ll be Cole versus Ryan Nelson who’s going to look to bounce back in the opener so looking at all of this uh and kind of deciding you know who the Padres are where they’re at oh I guess I should one more thing i did want to highlight because this is interesting the Padres’s just lost two out of three against the Dodgers but look at some of their scores it just in the past like you know threeish weeks lost by one win by one uh that was a blowout win by two win by one win by two lost by two win by one that was a little bit more of a blowout win by two win by one win by one lost by one lost by one win by two lost by one win by one lost by one it a lot of close games for this Padres’s team that they’ve had to battle through um so looking at all of this kind of the you know my takeaways are it’s kind of similar to the Mariners in the sense that you don’t want to be trailing going up against their high leverage relievers who are really good and in the Padre’s case um having a Jason Adam eighth inning and a Robert Suarez ninth inning that’s really dangerous so you do not want to be trailing this team going into the late innings because they’ve done a really good job this year of locking it down uh and then you look at the lineup uh it does fall off and the Padres’s have been you know linked to Jiren Durant of the Red Sox as a possible trade target and left field has clearly been an area where people are anticipating that they’re going to want to look so you know you look at the lineup it’s topheavy you look at the rotation the Diamondbacks aren’t going to be facing you know a ton of experienced guys uh this series um they will see Paveta in the third at a game um but Kick like I mention as I mentioned he only has uh he’s he’s only got seven starts this season and in the second game they’re going to be facing against Ryan Bert who only has you know two starts this season um yeah six games pitched two starts so in terms of you know experience they’re not the most experienced starting rotation um I think the key for the Diamondbacks is to strike early and and get to them and not allow that back end of the bullpen to shorten the games and for the Diamondbacks pitching they’re going to have to you know make you know make quick work out of the bottom of the Padres’s order and not kind of set the table for some dangerous hitters at the top so um Diamondbacks Padres’s as I mentioned the Diamondbacks are four and a half games back of San Diego who are the third and final wildcard team at this point in the season um and so it should be kind of an interesting kind of test for them to see where they’re at because they get swept Atlanta they get swept by uh Cincinnati and then they go on and sweep the uh the Mariners can they keep that same level of you know clean baseball you know quality starting pitching get into your bullpen the bullpen other than that one inning from Jeff Brighgam had looked much better in this series against the Mariners we are still waiting on the news for Justin Martinez and we’ll see um and I think everybody’s kind of bracing for for worst case scenario with him but we’ll we’ll see what happens um but you know what’s clear is that they’re not going to have him for a long time and um I think that you know at this point in the season we’re getting you know closer to the middle of summer you know the All-Star break is in a month the trade deadline’s at the end of July um starting to stack series wins right now will put you in a more you know positive place when you’re looking at what to do with this roster uh when the trade deadline does come along so this is a big series to kind of kickstart that so with that we will go to Trisha Whitaker who is going to be the sideline reporter for Apple TV Plus tonight at Chase Field uh and see what she has to say about this potential matchup here trisha Whitaker from Apple TV Plus joins the show thank you so much for taking a few minutes uh before tonight’s game at 6:40 uh just wanted to get your quick thoughts on kind of the storylines that you’re watching for with the Nbacks and Padres’s because they haven’t played each other and it’s June 13th which seems a little strange for a couple of division rivals at this point yeah I actually I was reading that I was like wait they haven’t played each other that is a weird feeling at this point in the season you would think that they would have but I think it’s going to be a good matchup look we know that this is a really tough division the Padres’s are you know they’re coming off a three-game sweep with the Mariners to get back to or sorry the Diamondbacks are coming off a three-game sweep with the Mariners to get back to 500 um they’ve won seven of their first 10 games in June after a really tough end to the month in May um so I think this is going to be really telling for the Diamondbacks specifically because it’s a crucial part of the season for them the next few weeks are going to be pivotal to the future um you know as they kind of decide whether to sell off their core assets or build for a postseason run um and I think what they’ve done to start June might make some people a little bit hopeful for them compared to what they did at the end of May specifically um but we’ll see and so I think this series is going to be really really telling for the Diamondbacks sure and it’s going to be in front of a lot of people obviously it’s national TV game um same thing on Saturday night as well so there’s going to be a lot of eyes on this Diamondbacks team um obviously Corbin Carroll gets a lot of national attention deservedly so and Catel Marte being an MVP finalist last year who are some other guys that you kind of have your eyes on in ter of looking forward to watching getting to to know and all that kind of stuff i mean I think one is pretty obvious it’s Suarez i mean you know he helped the Diamondbacks complete that sweep of the Mariners uh with that sixth inning go-ahead grand slam on Wednesday that was his third of the season I think that was insane um and you know he leads the Diamondbacks with 52 RBI and I think that he is a really exciting player to watch obviously you know you mentioned some of the others that are really exciting to watch corbin Carroll we actually had the Diamondbacks on Apple TV not too long ago and I interviewed Corbin Carroll actually for the first time which is wild that I’ve never interviewed him before um but I really enjoyed getting to know him a little bit more but yeah I think Suarez Purdomo he’s really exciting to watch everybody knows he has a fun personality i’ll be interviewing him tonight before the game um as well we’re actually going to have Corbin Carroll on a Talkback IFB during the game too on the Apple broadcast so um it’s going to be fun but yeah I would say definitely Suarez he’s somebody that I really enjoy watching um but I’m really looking forward to watching this entire lineup because really when you when you look at at this team and what they’ve got it’s not a lack of of power right now you look at it and it’s they’re pitching yeah right and for Suarez I think the record is is six grand slams in a season so if they keep getting some opportunities at the bases loaded right it’s amazing that he’s already got them um all right one question about the broadcast itself i’m sure you get asked about the in-game interviews with managers all the time but what is kind of the key for you as a reporter to get you know something good out of a manager who’s so locked into the game well not only are they locked into the game but they’re not going to give away any like game secrets you know what I mean that’s the most that that’s the most challenging part of an in-game interview with a manager to make it worth it you have to ask something almost like I don’t know how to explain it there has to be the game has to go your way for a couple innings there has to be some exciting plays or else literally the only thing there is to ask about is the pitching um and the interviews happen in the second and the third inning so you got to get creative it depends on the manager right so some managers will have a little bit of fun with me you have to gauge their personality um so Brian Snicker with the Braves he’s always a great manager interview you never know what he’s going to say but then there are some guys who do these manager interviews and I’m like you could not possibly be more serious right now like Kevin Cash with the Rays notoriously hates in-game manager interviews but he used to always do them with me because I was their sideline reporter for six years but he won’t do it with other people because he hates it so you got to gauge the manager’s personality and pray that something exciting happens during the first couple innings for you to ask them about it otherwise you’re just like “All right Scubble’s dealing on the mound what you got AJ?” I mean it’s just like gh but but I still think it’s it’s entertaining and and good insight when you can get a good manager interview in the game absolutely hopefully something happens early on that you can uh ask about because uh yeah that that seems like kind of an interesting kind of dynamic to be out there on the field um last one because I know you have to go um Pacers are up two to one i know you’re a big Pacers fan how you feeling going into tonight oh my gosh well first of all I’m feeling a little bit sad that I can’t be there i was there for game three when they won i used to intern for the Pacers way back in college they gave me my first web reporting job i was 21 years old running around in the Eastern Conference Finals they were playing the Heat so I was like interviewing LeBron James Dwayne Wade Chris Bosch Paul George all those guys that was my introduction to sports reporting so they have a soft spot in my heart um I’m feeling really good about the Pacers i’m feeling really good the thing about it is though the Thunder they’re such a good team you know and so I’m not going to I’m not going to drink anything but I feel good about the Pacers tonight specifically that home crowd is electric it’s energetic um and that city and that state we live and breathe basketball there i mean it’s almost embarrassing how obsessed we are with it even when our um college teams aren’t good we sound like those crazy people we’re like “Yeah they’re going to be good this year.” No they’re not um but you know we’re we’re obsessive so that city and that state they are pining for a championship and I feel pretty good about tonight definitely on the bucket list to go watch a game there because I haven’t haven’t been to that arena quite yet but the atmosphere seemed amazing in game three i’m sure it will be in game four trisha thank you so much for taking a few minutes before tonight’s broadcast to chat about the game anytime Alex thanks for having me thanks so much to Trisha for joining us as I mentioned the Dimebacks are going to be on Apple TV plus their first game the second game is going to be on Fox and then it will be back to dax.tv uh for Sunday’s finale as always all these games will be on 987 and the Arizona Sports app so make sure to listen there as well uh so thanks so much for listening to Ain’t No Fang as the Diamondbacks get ready for a three-game series against the San Diego Padres’s
The Arizona Diamondbacks play the San Diego Padres for the first time this year, so let’s do a little research on how the NL West rival is playing. Plus, Apple TV+ sideline reporter Tricia Whitaker joins the show to preview the series.
Diamondbacks’ Justin Martinez expected to ‘be lost for extended period’: https://arizonasports.com/mlb/arizona-diamondbacks/justin-martinez-8/3586957/
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