Bickley Blast: Why the Arizona Diamondbacks can't afford to let Paul Sewald close another game

and Mar boardings Arizona Sports the local sports leader Bley blast look at the bright side Arizona if your closer is a pariah or a pinata or the person you hate most on the entire planet it means your baseball team must be pretty good and alas we are again at that tired angry intersection in Arizona where the Diamond Backs cannot afford to let Paul sea Wald close another baseball game sea wald's failure on Wednesday was nearly a five alarm disaster if the Diamondbacks had lost another potential sweep because of Tory lello's loyalty to a fallen closer today might have been one of the angriest days this Sports Town has seen in a while in fact Ryan Thompson should get five saves added to his record for his performance on Wednesday it was that enormous so after cruising through most of the Season sea Wald has lost his velocity and his confidence and yesterday he appeared either incapable or terrified of throwing the ball near the plate for where it might end up you take away his blown saves in the month of July and the Diamondbacks would be closing in on the Dodgers in the National League West and yesterday he nearly coughed up a fourth St great chance to sweep an opponent and by now in this town with our history of closers we all know how this works we also know this has been a very tough year for Tori lello from the rash of injuries to a patchwork pitching staff to the year-long struggles of Corbin Carroll but now he has no choice but to sit seaw wall down in a Car Corner far away from the ninth inning because a faulty closer can not only sink a team he can drag down a manager who is too late in pulling the plug all right today's Bickle blast brought to you by my great friends at Chapman BMW who make luxury attainable find him online at Chapman bmw.com honestly it's just trust his stuff he's a really good pitcher and uh I've been through a lot of rough stretches like you said a lot of us have and uh you know I've been through been through a rough stretch this season um and the first thing you want to do is you want to start second guessing um but Paul man he's a he's a veteran like he he's he's not he's not pouting he's not overthinking it like he knows how good he is and he knows that he's going to go out there next time he gets the opportunity and get the job done he has to trust his stuff throw throw strikes and he's going to get the job done we we we all in this Clubhouse we believe in Paul a lot um so we're going to have a a good stretch in the season that's Ryan Thompson who came in and uh cleaned up the Paul sea Wald mess in the ninth inning they were able to escape with the win they do get the sweep as you said mhm in the blast uh that was not your normal save you look at a box score in a newspaper on a website and it says save Thompson but that was not made up like every other save it was it was about as diff difficult as it could get and again for a from a viewing perspective as a baseball fan uh you went into that inning and you didn't even have to give the ball to Paul seaal you could have given it to Ryan Thompson to start that inning uh but Tori lello apparently wanted to see if Paul seaal had kind of gotten his mojo back and watching that inning unfold from all the uh from all the bases that were willingly give away uh defensive indifference watching guys move up to second then take third then watching that wild pitch that was a pass ball and that just got by Jose Herrera it it was like the team couldn't have tried any harder to give away a game on a silver platter that's what it felt like and then Ryan Thompson came in and somehow got the last out of that game or last two outs of that game and and this team was able to walk away with what should be a a high point of the season your Second Sweep a and now a stretch of baseball going into August that makes you one of the hotter teams in baseball but this closer issue this ain't no joke we have lived this so many times in this town no and it's it's time I I totally agree with you I'm not going to take the extreme example of some that I've seen on social media let's run him out of town he's a bomb he needs to go Tori lello has proven time and time again he is a patient players manager and then on the other side of the spectrum Bick you still have fans saying well he's our guy you got to ride with him you know look at his record he's struggling right now you got to stick with him I'm I'm not there either and people those people will point out well look at tor's patience with AO henio Suarez and Corbin Carroll that's different those struggles came earlier in the season and they're one of nine in a lineup when the spotlight is on you as a closer in these high leverage situation close game situations you can't continue to squander those and this was the almost the fourth one he had squandered in a short period of time Paul sewald is in the midst of a terrible month and some of the numbers are eye popping at how bad this month has gone for him during May and June Bick MH Paul seaal made 18 appearances and gave up a total of five hits H he was Nails this month 12 appearances 18 hits 12 runs an erra of almost 11 you can't have that no you can but again it's not like just DFA him and get him out no correct the issues and Tor lell acknowledged hey this is a delivery issue you know Paul seaw Wald is like a UPS driver with a flat tire he's got a delivery issue right now so they're going to figure it out and maybe you can get some contribution from Paul Seawall down the stretch and talking to Derek Hall they are very aware that they have a number of options to turn to as the closer so there's no need to continue to try to let Paul seaal work this out in high leverage situations that's right they've got options and and again I think uh a quick Pro a quick tip of the cap to Mike haen for doing what he did at the deadline um on a couple of different levels you had to adjust at the last minute to compensate and get something in here at the short term to sub out Christian Walker and then you you added depth to the bullpen which now gives this team the flexibility and a couple of different candidates to step into that closer role now um the idea of Paul sewald returning to be the team's closer at some point in time we don't know about that nobody knows about that because you you you obviously have to give the ball to somebody else and if you give the ball to somebody else and it's lights out for instance if they take that opportunity with a J Puck and they say you do this and he just starts eating people alive from that position then he they're not taking the ball from him no but nor should they no nor should they but again if if it doesn't happen with puck or Thompson or GLE whoever they choose to be that ninth inning guy you could possibly go back to seaw Wald but you you talked about it yeah earlier in the show Paul sea Wald even all year his velocity has been down a tick and he's not a guy who relies heavily on velocity mhm fast ball ideally tops out at 92 93 if it's around 90 okay then you got to be more precise with your stuff and he was a guy yesterday who just didn't trust anything and your reaction to it was the same reaction I had he was hesitant to put the ball anywhere where it could be hit because he was afraid it was going over the fence it was going 500 miles and I thought the shot Abrams hit the center I thought that was out yeah so did I so and and and the one out he was able to record was an incredible play from paven Smith in incredible here's the big picture with this team right now it still was a great month there was a lot of frustration for this team in July from the blown you know the the the heartbreaking crushing losses to the injury to Christian Walker but they went what 17 and8 in the month of July it's one of the best months they've had on the calendar in this franchise's history and if you go back a month July 1st the Diamondbacks were 41 and 43 still under 500 10 and a half games out of first place and yeah in the thick of the wild card they are five games behind the Dodgers in the National League West standings right now and the Padres are starting to breathe down their necks too the Dodgers are not infallible I'm wondering how much of the the shift if if this winning can continue how much of the shift goes from all right we're going after the wild card to maybe being a Division champion cuz the Dodgers are I mean they started the post All-Star break very strong they look like a a little league team last night they had as many errors as they had hits in that loss to the Padres well it it almost feels like the Padres are in their heads a bit this year yes I agree and and and I I agree with you that I think maybe something bigger might be in play at some point in time but you again you you got to deal with the Padre's as well this is suddenly become quite a three- team deal in the National League West thanks for watching Bickley and marada click 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