Who will finish higher in the standings: the San Francisco Giants or the Arizona Diamondbacks

looking at the free agents the Giants did sign Ben is there anyone in particular they're keeping your eye on that could be maybe a bigger impact than what people are are just talking about when surrounding the Giants because I know he talked about conforto and his upside and I think if he was healthy last year and then entered free agency this year like everyone's getting paid this offseason like him and Brandon Nemo are probably both getting 100 million dollar contract from the New York Mets so as there's one of those players that the Giants signed from this off season they keeping your eye on that you think is a little under the radar that could pop for this team well I think first is probably conforto but I also believe Mitch haniger he has had some really good seasons and he's also he's been quote unquote injury prone but if you look at some of the injuries he's had he's had some very flaky injuries like uh I don't know if you know or the listeners know he he had a ruptured testicle on a foul ball that he hit yeah yeah rough right and he missed a lot of time with that um understandably so and other kind of fluky things like that but if you look at when he was healthy and when he kind of had a full season he's been really good and I mean 39 home runs is kind of insane but for me for him it's going to come down to defense because if you look at kind of the advanced metrics for him over his career he's been up and down kind of defensively and so if he can be healthy and then be the good defensive version of himself I think that he's got the upside I wouldn't say of a superstar but of a All-Star caliber player and Michael conforto I mean he averaged like 30 home runs over a four-year period and on base percentages of like 370. so they both have the potential to be really good players but also they have the potential to be mediocre players and I think they probably lie somewhere in between where they're good but not great but not mediocre and I don't know on on the pitching side it's interesting because you know last year like you said they bring in Rodan who I knew immediately had the upside to be like an Ace and what they do this year was Stripling and Manaya I don't think either of those two are kind of those types of pitchers they're more like contact oriented pitchers and I don't think they're gonna have that Cy Young type season that rodon was able to have but they finally have some young guys beating down the door a little bit in uh Kyle Harrison just I know the D-backs have even more young studs on the way but uh the Giants have their own maybe one or two and you're probably gonna see Kyle Harrison at some point this year and I know that wasn't really the question but he's he's a guy to look out for as well uh Taylor Rogers he's been a good reliever I don't know for me it's the it's the offensive players they need one of haniger or conforto to kind of go off I think that would be a key to this season no Sean Manaya no Sean Manaya talk for you are you out look at this look at what he did last year I just I'm you know a little bit uh tempering my expectations I know he was good but when he's been good he's not like a dominant strikeout artist like Rodan was he's more like an average strikeout rate and just kind of get really good results without being that blow people away type of picture although reportedly in his first spring start he was up to 96 whereas last year at this time he was like 88 90. so that's a big thing it is and they've had you know Alex Cobb was the same thing last year he came he's normally historically been a guy who throws like 91 and last year he was up to like 98 at times and so they've sent guys to try to Driveline up in Seattle and guys have been able to add velocity so we'll see if that translates for Manaya it certainly could if you're going from low 90s to Mid to Upper 90s that can make a big difference yeah it sounds like you sent these guys to biogenesis uh they had an ATX velocity yeah sounds like you're pretty insane I don't know what kind of training you gotta do to add that much raw power on your fastball but uh might have to go see a-rod's guys real quick but uh looking ahead I mean just because looking at your lineup right now I definitely think you need a haniger or a conforto deposit because Peterson had a pretty nice year last year at a pretty under the rated under the radar season I think it was even an All-Star for you guys last year and then yastrumski what he's already hurt I think said he's day-to-day just on Roto channels just a little knee thing yeah he's solid but he's not like a star player or anything like that like he just like one of those complimentary Google guys that every playoff lineup rotation needs so I definitely think you need a Hannah girl or conforto or both of them to pop for your lineup to really produce offensively because I want to get a little D-backs talking here because leaving your lineup your third baseman who might have been injured the last couple years but was pretty productive when he was on the field Evan Longoria as a D-backs fan because I don't think we've talked about him yet Ben how should us D-backs fans feel about Evelyn Glory obviously he's old obviously he's like 37 he's not the same Elite Defender as he once was but I'm like hey you get 90 to 110 games out of Evelyn Gloria you're just going to use them as your platoon third baseman to crush left-handed pitchers which I think he could still do at a pretty high level like as a D-backs fan my expectations aren't high for Avalon Gloria but should I have them even lower should my expectations be on the floor Ben I think you pretty much nailed it like everything you said was what I was going to say the first thing I was going to say is he's old like you can you kind of see the age at times that I think he fits the D-backs a lot better in that the the D-backs have a young team and so to mix in a veteran like Evan Longoria I think is is a really nice thing to do but for the Giants I mean he was like one of the core guys of that team and I just thought it was time to turn the page and try to get a little bit younger more like the D-backs in that regard but you nailed it I mean I think he's going to platoon he's gonna hit left-handed pitching I would say that you know he was there for five years in San Francisco and the first couple of years it was a you know Bruce Bochy LED coaching staff and then Gabe Kepler comes in they do a totally new coaching staff new hitting coaches three hitting coaches and they went off offensively in 2020 obviously short season people were wondering can they do it again Longoria was one of those guys who just hit a lot better after a couple down years uh but in 2021 they did it again and if you look at Longoria's Seasons I think I don't have them pulled up in front of me but he was much better offensively after working with these new kind of more modern hitting coaches and so I think he he's a guy I I really felt like should probably be platooned and he wasn't always here he played a lot against righties as well but if you're just platooning him I do think defensively he's still good I mean he he's really kind of steady he's really smooth he's really under control and he's just a guy that players gravitate to leadership wise and obviously he's been in the game a long time he's even kind of a borderline Hall of Fame player not because of his time with the Giants but his time before that and I don't know like if the deal reflects kind of The Upside and The Limited upside but also just a solid uh peace on a young team to kind of provide that veteran leadership and also do a good job in a somewhat limited role defensively and hitting lefties yeah and last year you just look as numbers like he missed some time with injury played 89 games but if we get a 767 Ops and 14 home runs out of Evelyn Gloria like if he just duplicate what we did with the Giants last year for the D-backs like I think that's all the value we need we just need him split time at third with Josh Rojas and just bang some dingers when you get a hanging curveball over the middle from a lefty that's all we need I think Evelyn Gore can definitely do that already has a house here in Arizona I think is already engine his way toward Arizona maybe before he was like let me do a quick stop in San Fran get some sunshine hit the beach for a little bit and then retire in AZ he said that he said it towards the end of the year like people are asking him about his future and he basically said I want to come back to the Giants but also if if that doesn't happen I want to I probably want to play for the D-backs score or I want to play for the Tampa Bay race where I have a house because obvious easily started his career there so yeah he he wants to be there so that's that's part of it too he's happy to be close to home he want he has kids or at least one and he wants his kid his family wants them to see him uh keep playing at least one more season where the kid is a little older and can experience his dad being a you know Major League player close to home and free agents wanting to come to Arizona that's a rarity there don't always have that and probably because we don't want to pay them what they're worth but happy to see Evan Longoria come I think it's going to be a nice veteran presence for this young team but Ben caspick I want to know just because the Giants finish with a perfect 500 record last season 81-81 we talked about how Carlos rodon had just left this off season we talked about their whiffs but listen I do think they brought in quality players maybe not of the Carlos Correa caliber but I don't like I don't hate the hanagers and the confortos and the raw strip Links of the world I think those are solid players so entering this season do you think the ceiling is higher or lower than the Giants compared to last year's team that's tough I think the ceiling might be lower but I think the floor is higher I think that's a good answer why do you mostly think it's because Rodan with his dad won't come and yeah I feel that I feel like it's Rodan because he he had the potential to be a Cy Young caliber player and he was but so many other things didn't go right but if you had like the floor of this year's team with like kind of that upside that's why I was so seemingly important to get a whether it was Correa or judge or even Rodan I didn't think they were going to go out and get rodon or bring him back because of what we just talked about with pitchers and all that but if you add some serious upside like serious upside type players to this team with such a high floor I do think that's how you really pop off and and win 90 plus games and just kind of have a lot of things go your way but this year's team they have a lot of depth I just kind of see them being able to sustain injuries and all that kind of stuff and but I I don't know it's hard to say like it's hard to put a cap on on a ceiling because the 2021 Giants won 107 games with without Rodan and without some of the quality veterans we've discussed today so any team can kind of pop off and have a miracle season but realistically I think we're looking at a mid 80s win team-ish and when when the true Talent is there you could you could win 90 you could win 80. but somewhere in that range how do you think the Giants organization in front office views this team and their Outlook or do you think they're just going to the season trying to be another 500 type-ish team or do you think they have real expectations of going in there maybe winning 90 plus games and making some noise in the playoffs or it's just this like just a retooling year and maybe trade a couple of these guys at the deadline like a Brandon Crawford who's getting a little older I think there's a lot of pressure to win now even if it I'm not going to say it doesn't make sense I think I think that makes sense they basically there's a lot of pressure to win now because they've made the playoffs exactly one time since 2016 and that was 2021 and this is not you know this is not the Pittsburgh Pirates or the Kansas City Royals or the Oakland A's you know this is a this is a bigger Market team and I could have said the D-backs but I didn't wow okay I'm sorry babe the T-Rex they they do things they do things well and they're on the up and up so no we're gonna have a wager at the end of this podcast yeah so you keep talking your ish right now because it'll be okay right but you know the Pirates I think is a good example like where where it's kind of tolerable or expected almost to go through multiple losing seasons and kind of rebuild that way but this is a team that expects to win year in and year out and they had the 2021 season but going back you know regressing to 81 last year uh there's this is the fifth year of this new front office and the contract was for five years for farhan's IDE taken over president of baseball operations and we have not heard about an extension although there's kind of hints that he may have been extended already but the fans have the fans are restless I don't know if you know this but Giants fans are very very very restless right now I think about the state of the team the farm system you may have noticed like in some rankings is not up where I think people thought they would be at this point uh but yeah I do not think it's a retooling year at all I think the expectation is to win but they're kind of Fringe and so they may have to make a another big deadline acquisition like like they did in 2021 with Chris Bryant if they if they're kind of borderline at that point and they want to make that big splash that pushes them over the top but I think they're better than people think but also it's a competitive national league right away you've got the Dodgers the Padres the Mets and the Braves accounting for you know four of your six playoff spots most likely and then there's there's really a race for two more spots and you've got some other good teams like the Phillies and the Brewers and the D-backs are in that mix and uh now the Cardinals obviously so I think it's it's going to be a competitive league in the race in the National League this year and the D-backs are a big part of that they could disrupt a lot of people's plans if if they hit on kind of their upside oh yeah we're going to talk about D-backs versus giants in one second but I got one more question before we get there because after seeing the Giants offseason at least try and go out there and spend money on the Aaron judges you know give him potentially three to four hundred million and give Carlos Correa 300 plus million do you think in future off-seasons going forward the Giants will be big time players for these Big Time free agents because listen this upcoming offseason is going to be one of the most talked about ones with maybe the best free agent of all time and show hey ohtani do you see the Giants as a team that will also get into that market or do you think they will just the the bidding will be too high because you're probably gonna have to start at like 450 over 10 years for autoni do you think the Giants are a team that would be willing to get into that kind of expensive bidding I think they would I mean they did it they did it with Aaron judge and Carlos Correa it wasn't 450 but if if that's what he's worth then I think that they're going to pursue it especially because of everything we've heard about Otani preferring to play on the west coast I don't know if that's totally true I know it was true when he was first you know considering teams to sign with and he had those finalists and the the Giants were one of those finalists back then in 2017 2018 coming off a 98 Lost season they were still considered a finalist and so if there's some kind of preferent preference to be on the west coast and you're a team that needs stars and you've got this money to spend they tried to also sign Harper several years ago so they've been trying to go big game hunting here with some stars and they just haven't come away with one but I don't see any reason they're just gonna sit on the sidelines for shoheiotani the one exception and I keep bringing this up on my show is he's half a pitcher and we we're as I just got done talking about they're hesitant to give a five-year deal to Kevin Gosman and so I wonder how that factors in to their thinking if at all when you consider that shoheiotani is you know if you're talking about 10 11 12 your deal for this guy ultimately are you willing to break your own seeming rule uh about giving a long-term deal to someone who is partially a pitcher so and Machado was another guy who made sense but he's not on the board anymore it's really shohei Otani and then a huge drop-off so it's going to be fascinating and I think the Giants will be in the mix but am I confident They'll Come Away with him no I think when you look at like the long-term ohtani contract you have to be like all right I'm getting like four to five years of pitching and then like 10 years of hitting and then you have to kind of figure out what number you're okay with I feel like for a tiny contract you probably want to front load that thing so you could pay him while he's both a pitcher and hitter Because by the time he's like 34 35 he's probably gonna slow down the pitching and still be one of the best Sluggers in Major League Baseball which is just a crazy statement to say but I want to get to the finale of this podcast Ben because I've been doing research I've been looking at the teams on paper the rotation the lineup the bullpen and my conclusion is I think the D-backs on paper have a higher ceiling maybe a lower floor than the Giants because I do agree the Giants have very good depth but I'm picking the D back to finish ahead of the Giants in the standings this year I think the D-backs are being completely overlooked at least on FanDuel because if you look at like the division odds to win the division of course I don't think the D-backs are going to win the division but the fact that the Giants are like plus 1100 to win the division then the D back to like plus 4 1000 to win the division I think that disparity is so crazy to me and I think the D-backs are actually better than the Giants entering this season how do you feel about our D-backs vs Giants rivalry this season I feel like we've had this conversation before and and then at times it has played out where it's been pretty close I think and at times the Giants have gone on to win 107 and the D-backs have like Fallen apart but I feel that that this year again I agree with you we often agree that there's there these teams are closer than people think I agree with you a hundred percent that disparity on FanDuel I I would bet on the D-backs probably if I saw that uh I mean like I said I don't think they're winning the division either but yeah they're just better um if you want to make money but like yeah so if if everything goes right for the Dbacks it is not hard to see and the giants like they don't hit their upside but they just kind of have their floor and they're are solid but the D-backs have the potential if they hit on their upside to surpass the Giants but I mean I I honestly think they could do it maybe the pitching maybe isn't quite there for me when I look at some of the guys but I don't know how I don't exactly know how these young guys who you've got coming up are gonna factor in and and that makes a big difference if sudden obviously Corbin Carroll has arrived but you've got like three other guys by many Publications who are like top 15 prospects in the game and a lot of them are close to the major leagues and so if those guys come up and reach their potential then this team could be really really good and yeah so I agree with you I I think I'd have I'd have the Giants ahead so we disagree there but I think I think I agree and that I respect the the upside and the young talent coming for Arizona yeah the D-backs are going to be a huge Wild Card just because of what you said all the young talent that they're gonna have they're gonna have like maybe two rookies in that rotation they're gonna have Corbin Carroll who's a rookie Jake McCarthy you know he had like a half season with the D-backs last year like this D-backs team is so young it's gonna be so inexperienced but they got such good upside with the with so many of those young players that I just think the ceiling is going to be higher than the Giants and that all those young players I think are going to because with the new rule changes too I think it's just gonna affect the D-backs just because this D-backs team has so much speed on it I think speed is going to be like a major factor for teams this year that's like my big Proclamation which I don't think is like some outlandish take or whatever with the bigger bigger bases the pitch clock and the only two pick-off attempts per played appearance I think Steals and speed is going to be a major factor and weapon this season for MLB teams I think the D-backs might be the greatest benefactor of that rule change and so Ben since you believe the Giants are going to finish ahead of the D-backs in the standings would you officially like to make a wager on this podcast on who's going to finish higher we don't have to come up with the details but would you like to bet on which team will finish high on the standings I I absolutely would because I'm not just you know playing to the camera I think that the Giants are better but and you think the deepaks are better but I think it's interesting so yeah I think that I'm happy to do so and I can't lie I'm always biased whenever I talk about the teams I love it's just so hard I try to be impartial but it's so hard to not just feel emotionally wrapped up when you have to cover these teams and talk about them every day it's like I just want to see the D-backs be successful it's so hard to now pour my emotions into as well so it's always a little bit of wishful thinking when you do these kind of bets but we'll have to probably announce on Twitter maybe talk after the show about what kind of details should be going into this season-long bet maybe we'll announce it right before the start of the season but there will be a wager listeners there will be a bet between Ben caspick and I locked on Giants versus locked on dime backs and before we go today any parting words well I just wanted to say when you mention speed and athleticism and and that it even ratchets up in importance this year I don't know if you remember but I remember very well the Diamondbacks were a major problem for the San Francisco Giants last year precisely because of their speed and athleticism and it just like they the Giants matched up so poorly with Arizona last year and so I wonder like somehow the rest of the league had an okay time with the D-backs but the Giants I mean they couldn't hit Merrill Kelly that was a whole other thing he just that guy dominated the San Francisco Giants last year um and so you know when I talk about moving on from Evan Longoria they also the Giants also moved on from Brandon Belt these were guys who are just veterans dealing with injuries all the time and like slow and so hopefully I think for me this year the Giants are going to be not it's not going to be such a stark comparison but yes the D-backs have that and fans of the Giants saw that firsthand and if you can do that to the rest of the league and just kind of impose your will athletically and with speed it's exciting it's a fun brand of baseball and we uh we saw how it can work when when the Giants were playing the D-backs last year that's my final thought yeah Giants were nine and ten against the D-backs last season so it's not like we Molly like if there was one more game we probably would have been 10 and 10 against each other perfect 500 record against each other because they're pretty evenly matched what was the D-backs total record though uh the D-backs was 74 and whatever like 88 whatever losses that is yeah and and it was the nature of a lot of those losses like the way that the D-backs won was just like athleticism and speed and just the Giants had no answer for it when they were getting beat and I think towards the end of the I think the giant swept in the end of the season and so it was the D-backs had a much I think the Giants swept in their final series but so I think before that it was I guess six and six and ten no no I I can't do math while doing a podcast yeah I'm actually looking at it now the D-backs actually won the last two Series against the Giants so we actually know what yeah we we had a one must have been the Rockies yeah last game D-backs versus Giants D-backs walked it off actually for the win so that was uh pretty pretty nice feeling yeah the Rockies used to wept in that last series you guys destroyed the record you guys were like uh 15 and five against Rocky's last season you guys absolutely um but I do want to ask you actually before we go today Ben just real quick you could give me however long could be a one minute answer you could take another 10 minutes if you want just give me your quick thoughts on the pitch clock okay um it seems a little bit fast but what I from what I understand the first week in the minor leagues when they tested it out there were like 1.7 violations per game or something and the first week of spring training there's like 1.7 violations per game but by the you know by I think a month into the year in the Minor League season where they were using this they were down to half a violation per game and so players get used to it and so I think if you're watching spring training right now and it seems rushed and there's a lot of violations relatively speaking that's because it takes time to get used to it and look I was a purist I was adamantly against the DH coming to the NL I was adamantly against the pitch clock I was adamantly against Banning or restricting shifts but the pitch clock I think is going to end up being one of the best things to happen to baseball in a long time because the guys just take too long to get into the box not every one of them and to pitch you know just and to new fans young fans like in the modern world just you turn on a game and a lot of people just see what what are they doing they're just standing there and they're not doing anything and just you're not losing any action You're simply losing time between the action and so it feels a little bit rushed like I'm okay maybe thinking about adding a couple seconds to the clock perhaps but just the idea of it once they get used to it you won't notice it as much people will just play at a better pace and I think right now give it time when the players adjust and you don't you see a violation only one time every two games that you watch versus you know multiple violations per game I think if you're violating multiple times a game it's too much but ultimately I think it's it's gonna be great because the pace is important and it had slowed down too much uh I want to hear your thoughts I have to know yeah I am totally in on the pitch clock I am in on anything that leads to offensive production more action or just the efficiency like you said between the action because a lot of pushback is from either old generation claiming oh this new age the microwave generation they go on Tick Tock for 10 seconds and they have no attention span yes part of that is true I won't deny New Generation people have a shorter attention span than the people of yesterday but also you can't deny the fact that baseball games are getting increasingly longer with no added action because you look at the average time of baseball games the last five years they've been over three hours I think in 2021 or 2020 the average length of a baseball game was like three hours and 10 minutes long the peak of baseball was the steroid era the 80s and 90s back then a baseball game on average was between three hours and 35 minutes or not three hours two hours and 35 minutes and two hours and 45 minutes and if you go back further the further you go back in baseball the shorter times were in the 50s and 60s games are under two and a half hours those things are like two hours and 20 minutes long so we've added so much time over the years without getting better offensive production you would think the offense would be getting better at the same time maybe that would lead the to the increase in the the games being longer but part of its pitchers are getting better they're striking out more so at bats are longer but if we're not getting more action and these games are longer it's like we need to figure out a way to condense the action I think the fact that we're getting a pitch clock we're Banning the shift we're getting the pick-off attempts lesson like I love the idea of games flying by because me and you were West Coast guys every game we watch starts at 7 10 and guess what some of those games with the extra innings go until midnight and I don't want to be recording post-game podcasts after 11 after midnight so the idea of a game starting at 7 10 and then ending at like 9 30 it just really appealing to me as a baseball podcast and you don't miss any action it's the same number of outs same number of innings you're literally just missing the time when the batter steps out to readjust his glove looks at glove batting gloves looks at the sky steps up you know pitcher steps off blah blah blah all that stuff and again once once the players get used to it it won't seem it'll just be played at a crisper pace and so I think people are gonna it's one of those things people just don't like change and I think it's one of those things where people are going to realize this is what happened in the miners including players former Major Leaguers like Matt Carpenter uh you know was in the minor leagues last year and he said initially he hated it and then it did not take him long and then he said I love it and so I think that's what we're gonna see fans are going to realize it's it's good for the game players are going to realize it I think we're already seeing it I feel like there's always going to be naysayers but it's going to be one of the best changes we've made in a long time to the sport yeah I think over the next three to five years baseball is going to kind of make you a comeback into the national talking audience just because the pace of play like we just talked about we're gonna get Robo ums like once games are like two hour two and a half hours long with way more action between pitches with the the the less complaining between every pitch every ball and strike just seeing a clean executed game maybe you got a replay every now and then for the safe uh for you know calling somebody safer out but I just think we're gonna get so much more efficient action get so much more efficiency from um balls and Strikes I just think the game is going to be so much better we're going to get so much more offense with the band shift I love the direction baseball is moving because so long it was stuck in its ways and now it's finally seeing the world of evolution I love it Ben kaspick of lockdown Giants where can the listeners find you on social media on Twitter at Ben caspick k-a-s-p-i-c-k pretty active on there tweeting out a bunch of stats and what have you about the Giants and it's a lot of fun so check me out there and where can my listeners find you yeah at Creator Thomas 24 for the Personnel account or just look up lockdown basketball Twitter Instagram for the podcast handle on all your podcasting streaming platforms and please hit both of our YouTube channels with a subscribed locked on dimebacks and locked on Giants Ben caspick the locked on Giants will come out with our little wager details probably right before the season starts they're very excited to see a little bit between our two teams because I'm really in on the D-backs this year and I hope they don't disappoint Ben thank you for joining today sir [Music] [Music] thank you