First of all, if you’re here reading this, thank you. This will be publishing at noon on deadline day, and I’m sure it will be sandwiched between articles on here with news and updates, or barring that, fevered refreshes of MLBTR. Appreciate you stopping. Second, take everything from here on out with a grain of salt. Both Mike Hazen and AJ Preller could up end anything I write at any moment, maybe even before it publishes! Isn’t the trade deadline fun?
Well, its definitely more fun for the Diamondbacks
this season than it was last season. Last year saw them get swept in Detroit leading up to the deadline, this time they find themselves having won four of their last five series, tied for the second Wild Card, and six games over .500. All done with arguably more injuries. YCPB.
This series in particular will be important as they are facing off against the Padres. Those Padres are just a single game behind the Diamondbacks in the Wild Card standings, and a winning series here would give them a little breathing room. Losing the series, and they’d more than likely be out of a playoff spot after all the effort they’ve put in to get one.
Game 1 — 8/3, 6:40 PM: Brandon Pfaadt (5-1, 0.6 bWAR, 4.00 ERA/107 ERA+, 1.29 WHIP) vs Michael King (6-7, 2.8 bWAR, 3.38 ERA/121 ERA+, 1.17 WHIP)
Welcome to the over 100 ERA+ club Pfaadt! That’s new since the last time I wrote one of these previews. It’s been the product of a string of very quality pitching since he’s returned to the starting rotation. In those six startsx, he has yet to give up more than two runs, yet to pitch fewer than five innings, and has most recently capped it off by a masterful 7 IP scoreless outing against Wild Card rival Pirates. The team believed that he was tipping pitches, and that is specifically what he was sent down to the minors top work on, and it’s impossible to deny the results. That extension he signed is looking much better than it was even two months ago.
King has been a good, steady pitcher for the Padres since they acquired him in 2024. He’s had an ERA+ of 129 over the 2.5 seasons, and this year has been much the same. He’s limited opponents to two runs or less in five of his last seven starts, but perhaps the best news for the Diamondbacks is that he gave up four to the Rockies, in San Diego on top of it, in his last start. If there is a carry over from that rough start to this one, it could be beneficial. There is precedent for it as well, as he had a three game stretch at the end of May/beginning of June where he gave up four or more runs in each game.
Game 2 — 8/4, 6:40 PM: Eduardo Rodriguez (10-3, 4.5 bWAR, 2.48 ERA/172 ERA+, 1.20 WHIP) vs TBD
The fairy tale season of Eduardo Rodriguez continues with an eight inning scoreless outing against the Pirates in his last start. At this point, it’s hard to find much to say new about Rodriguez, but unlike some other players (glares at Gallen) it’s for a positive reason. If the Diamondbacks are to finish the season strong, it will be on the back of his future performance. So here’s to continuing the run, E-Rod.
Game 3 — 8/5, 6:40: Mitch Bratt (0-1, 0.0 bWAR, 5.23 ERA/83 ERA+, 1.83 WHIP) vs TBD
Bratt has been in the league now for five starts, and it’s been a bit of a roller coaster. His last couple starts, he finally seems to have stretched out a bit, going five innings in back to back starts. The quality of those starts were wildly all over the place, however, as one was a five run, five walk stinker, and the other was just a single run, but also with four walks. His FIP, at 6.77, says it all, given that is even higher than his already high ERA.
Game 4 — 8/6, 6:4o: Kohl Drake (0-0, 0.0 bWAR, 4.85 ERA/90 ERA+, 1.46 WHIP) vs. Walker Buehler (6-5, 0.1 bWAR, 5.18 ERA/79 ERA+, 1.44 WHIP)
Drake has had a fairly unspectacular start to his MLB career. Two decent, if short outings, one not so great. Still early days, so it’s still far to soon to tell. Like Bratt, however, his FIP is another run over his already high ERA, so a concern to look out for in the coming games. Additionally, he has been a huge good luck charm for the offense, as he has yet to get fewer than six runs of support in any of his starts.
Buehler has come a long way since he was the next big thing and was placing in the Cy Young Award top tens, and not in a good way. He hasn’t had a season over 100 ERA+ since 2022, and really, he’s only had one over 80 in that time frame too. This season has been more of the same, not going far into games and giving up multiple runs. On July 6th, he faced off against the Diamondbacks to detrimental effect, giving up seven runs in five innings, only striking out four, but limited the walks to one.
Conclusion
It’s hard to write about a conclusion when I’m not even 100% sure who is going to be on the team when this series is played. For all I know, Casey Mize pitches instead of Bratt or Drake. Really going crazy, there’s nothing to say that Hazen doesn’t pull a build-and-sell move like he loves so much and Rodriguez is shipped out for a haul. Who knows. But I do think that the awakened Diamondbacks offense is a plus for them in this series, and they’re starting out on the right foot with Pfaadt in game one, so I think they stand a chance. Stay tuned for more, though…
