Posts by: Jeff Wiser
A little more than a week ago I told you that Welington Castillo is a bad pitch framer. He’s more or less average at the other, more traditional parts of catching – namely blocking and throwing. People have talked about him being good with the pitchers and that they like working with him and I can’t really speak to …
Continue Reading →Baseball season is approaching, but that approach is taking an excruciating amount of time. It’s now less than three weeks until pitchers and catcher report to Salt River Fields to do some stretching and work on their pickoff moves and practice signs and whatever else those guys do. In the meantime, the bulk of the talk around baseball will be …
Continue Reading →Strikeouts were a problem for the Diamondbacks’ pitching staff in 2015. As a collective group of pitchers, they were 19th in the majors in strikeout rate. The starters were 18th and the relief corps ranked 24th. It was a bottom-third result when you put it all together in terms of strikeouts. We like strikeouts, but as you’ve hopefully noticed here, …
Continue Reading →I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. There’s no designated hitter in the NL and that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned. I like the double-switch. I like how the manager really has to pick his spots. I like how utilizing the bench and the bullpen are more heavily-tied to strategy in the NL as …
Continue Reading →There’s a weird disparity in baseball right now. Jason Stark profiled it well for ESPN last week. In the American League, there are few, if any, teams that have no chance to compete. Using Fangraphs’ projected standings based off Steamer projections, there is no team predicted to win fewer than 78 games. Ten of the 15 teams are projected …
Continue Reading →Before Welington “Beef” Castillo came along, the Diamondbacks’ catching situation was laughably bad. It inspired a number of articles that all came to the same general conclusion: they aren’t actually going to run that out there all season are they? They were, and then the Mariners did a dumb thing (as they are seemingly prone to doing) and took Mark …
Continue Reading →On Monday, the Diamondbacks made a big announcement. Okay, maybe not so big, but at least it was an announcement. The team will bring 23 non-roster invitees to Spring Training. These are all players who are not part of the team’s 40-man roster. There are some exciting names and some who you might be wondering about. Let’s go rapid fire …
Continue Reading →It’s funny how the outlook for the Arizona Diamondbacks largely depends on who you hear it from. By that I mean, the team clearly loves what they’ve done this winter. They should, they have some productive, shiny, new toys. The general baseball media has the team entrenched as a contender, but perhaps as one that’s still considered just a little …
Continue Reading →It’s expensive to own a major league baseball team. If I win Powerball, I’ll probably buy a team and move them to Portland, Oregon and call ’em The Jeffs (but after taxes, shoot, I probably still can’t do it – I’ll start a GoFundMe page for the rest). To own a team, you really need to understand business because the …
Continue Reading →Yesterday I wrote a lot about Paul Goldschmidt as a possible Hall of Fame candidate. If you didn’t read the full installment, I’d suggest going back and taking a gander. Today things won’t be so long and exhaustive. Let’s keep it short because that’s what Double Plus Fridays are all about anyways (at least in theory).
I decided to …
Continue Reading →Yesterday was big for me. I’m not usually one for the Hall of Fame discussion because I think it has gotten away from what was intended in some ways and the arguments are often either pedantic or ill-informed. Those aren’t great options, so I usually steer clear. This year, however, Ken Griffey, Jr. was up for enshrinement and, having grown …
Continue Reading →If you read The Inside the ‘Zona 2015-16 Offseason Plan, you probably noticed that we advocated for signing a couple of short-term, mid-level starting pitchers. No one in their right mind thought that Zack Greinke was an option but apparently he was after the appropriate amount of deliberation. Shelby Miller was always sort of on the radar but then …
Continue Reading →The Diamondbacks had one major need this winter and they’ve filled it about as adequately as possible. Yes, they could still use an impact reliever, but by and large, the work is done. Finding an impact reliever might be difficult-to-futile at this point considering the team probably knows full and well who is and who is not available at this …
Continue Reading →Last seasons, Chip Hale earned a gold star for his work mixing and matching players in the outfield. With five players initially, then four players for the three spots, he allocated the time about as perfectly as possible. Down the stretch, A.J. Pollock played roughly 95% of the time, David Peralta played about 85% of the time, Ender Inciarte played …
Continue Reading →I like Patrick Corbin. I like A.J. Pollock. I like most things and most people, at least initially. My good feelings about the Diamondbacks’ lefty and center fielder have endured because they strike me as fine young gentlemen who do good thing routinely for the Arizona Baseball Diamondbacks. They’re similar in certain ways and very different in others. …
Continue Reading →We know that the Diamondbacks’ rotation will be better in 2016. Part of that is because it would have been hard to be worse, but there have also been some notable additions. You may have heard about this. I’m guessing you did. For a team with big aspirations, a boost to the rotation was at the top of the holiday …
Continue Reading →@ryanpmorrison
Best part of Peralta’s 108 mph fliner over the fence, IMHO: that he got that much leverage despite scooping it out… https://t.co/ivBrl76adF, 
RT @OutfieldGrass24: If you're bored of watching Patrick Corbin get dudes out, you can check out my latest for @TheAthleticAZ. https://t.co/k1DymgY7zO, - Of course, they may have overtaken the league lead for outs on the bases just now, also...
But in 2017, Arizona ha… https://t.co/38MBrr2D4b,
- Prior to the games today, there had only been 5 steals of 3rd this season (and no CS) in the National League. The… https://t.co/gVVL84vPQ5,
- RT @OutfieldGrass24: Patrick Corbin has a WPA of .318 and it's only the fifth inning.,
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RT @MLBPipeline: Correction:
Oldest players on the #Top100Prospects list:
#Astros' Josh James, 25 (3/08/1993)
#Dbacks' Jon Duplanti… https://t.co/IpgOEtfUrh, - Diamondbacks MiLB affiliate the Missoula Osprey will transition away from the "Osprey" in 2020. Fans can vote for a… https://t.co/czwu2A1T3Q,
- Old Friend Alert https://t.co/vZFngGVaFF,
- Winning defensive MVP of the NFL Pro Bowl is something that should not actually be possible,
- Bill Swancutt (2005 draft, Lions) and Alex Brink (2008 draft, Texans). Swancutt was a DE and TE that I had to cover… https://t.co/7PvKgIVkD3,
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