Letters to Clefo. Twitter Mailbag

The concept is simple. I asked for questions on Twitter, you ask them, once a month or so I answer them. Now let’s get to it, I overslept today and I’m seeing Avengers at 10:45 this morning.

Also, not a lot of you asked actual questions, and a lot were of a similar nature. I answered them anyway because I wasn’t about to rethink my concept for this column at the last minute.

It can be hard to imagine the Diamondbacks keeping this up, if only because we still have the scars of last season and some favorable things not totally in their control, like the Rockies being an absolute trash fire, might not continue.

However, the last three playoff teams for Arizona (2017, 2011, 2007) were not teams that anyone expected to make the playoffs at the start of the season. This is definitely true of this year’s team. So, why not?

I think by the All-Star break there will still be some hope for contention, though I don’t know if an 8-2 road trip is the norm, but I think “This team is better than expected” is on the table, though how that translates into playoff contention remains to be seen.

I think Avila-Joseph is the natural swap there, assuming that they want to continue the madness of carrying 3 full-time catchers. Lamb is more interesting. It seems like he may be an odd one out of regular playing time, but considering how he can run into one occasionally and has, technically, been an All-Star in the past it seems like they could find room on the bench for him. Only carrying two catchers, like a normal team (At this point I’m not considering Blake Swihart a catcher since the team isn’t), would probably mitigate that.

Whether one can carry five catchers is really dependent on your personal strength. Don’t hurt yourself being macho trying to carrying many catchers at once to impress someone. I had hernia surgery last year and let me tell you, it hurts for awhile, so be smart. Carry one or two catchers and make multiple trips.

Look, in moderation, sugar is awesome. Enjoy it for what it is now, but don’t get on the rickety county fair ride of high expectations right after eating the large amounts of funnel cake of a good stretch of games. Otherwise you’re gonna be puking up the sadness of a bad stretch run and your date of baseball contentment will not call you again.

Don’t try these metaphors at home, kids.

In the context of “We’re gonna trade away the face of the franchise but still try to compete” it’s was and still feels... bad, not to mention from a PR standpoint it feels cynical. I’ve said this before, but if it was part of a bigger rebuild, it would be easier to swallow. As much as I want him to, I’m not sure Christian Walker’s current hot streak can continue and be worth a full hypothetical season of Goldschmidt.

That being said, I’ve been pretty impressed with Luke Weaver so far. I wish Carson Kelly would get more playing time (see previous catching-related questions) So it could be not-as-bad, but it feels like a trade that we’ll have to wait a season or two to really judge.