Diamondbacks Poised as Surprise Threat in Postseason
Joe Raineri and Tom Vecchio make their case for why the Diamondbacks might be the MLB's playoff dark horse in 2026, despite multiple hurdles and controversies.
Video Transcript
I think the Diamondbacks are gonna be one of those teams that are gonna be very dangerous, come September, right?
Once the postseason comes.
They've got a couple of guys pitching.
What you mentioned, Rodriguez today has been outstanding.
Brandon Pfaadt has been You know, in a short series, they have some frontline starters there, Tom- that can get the job done.
Now, Marte is just an unfortunate situation that he's such a, you know, he's got, he's a few fries short of a Happy Meal, 'cause he was a very important part of that lineup and that offense.
But they're doing it without him, and that's really all that matters, right?
I mean, they gotta- Mm-hmm you gotta be in it to win it, and it's gonna come down to, despite the Phillies being eight and two in their last 10, they're only three games, two games ahead of Arizona, one game ahead Or they're actually almost even, tied with the Padres here.
So is Phila- are we sure that Philadelphia is locked into this spot here?
I think so.
I wanna say yes, and you know, the way Zach Wheeler has been pitching as of late- Oh not good.
But at the same time, now all of a sudden Aaron Nola's pitching really well, which is not something that I anticipated.
Yeah, good point.
So I, I, I think- this is really just a, a bump in the road for Wheeler, and things will even out.
And when you look at it from a pitching perspective, the Phillies, you know, I, I can't say about the Braves, I think the Braves have a great lineup, and I'm talking about going toe-to-toe with the Dodgers this is.
The Phillies with Sanchez, Wheeler if he's at top form, and Lozado, those three guys give you probably the best shot to take down the Dodgers.
I'm not sure if the, the Brewers have it.
Mizejewski's great in game one, Kyle Harrison could be good there too, but a little bit further down the line I'm worried about the depth of the pitching, the starting pitching for the Brewers.
I don't think Dustin May's the answer.
The bullpen for the Brewers is great, the lineup's not great.
The Phillies might be the best shot to take down the Dodgers.
I would love to see it, that is for sure here.
I do think they have a pretty good opportunity, but they've already shown you they can get hot.
13 games above 500 right now.
They're up 6-0 here against, Seattle.
And then they will, take on the Angels on a nice weekend series as well.
But listen, everyone seems to be chasing two teams, and one of them being the Dodgers, the other being the Brewers.
And the Mets are just going to have to play the what could have been game, I think, Tom.
'Cause they don't seem to have a problem beating everyone without Soto on the mound, trading away half of their guys, and all of a sudden, is it coincidence that they became a very good baseball team after that?
Very strange, is it not?
It is.
And the Mets are playing good ball.
You know, a part of me- Yeah wanted to say, like, oh, you know, when we were talking about who's gonna make the, the NL wild card, you know, part of me wanted to say like, "Oh listen, the Marlins, they got some games against the Mets, they got some games against the Nats.
That should be a, you know, a, a spot where they could pick up some wins."
But the Mets all of a sudden, they're playing good ball post deadline, post trades.
And the thing I would say about the Mets is they're gonna be booked as underdogs in basically every game.
They've been the underdog at home this series against the Brewers.
And they're not just a slight underdog, they're like plus 148 some of these games.
And granted, the Brewers are great, we know that, but maybe that should have been closer to a pickup and the Mets wouldn't have been so enticing.
But I think the Mets are gonna continue to surprise people.
They gotta, they gotta fight for some amount of pride and use this as a, a starting point for next season really.
This is where next season starts for them, is proving it right now when there's no pressure on them.
