Posts by: Ryan P. Morrison
You know the story: in 2012, Paul Goldschmidt was quite good. In 2013, he made The Leap into the MVP discussion on the back of a 36 HR, .302/.401/.551 season, finishing with a wRC+ of 156. He was almost exactly as great in a Frieri-shortened 155 wRC+ campaign last year, and since coming back this spring, he’s taken it to …
Continue Reading →Guys — Jake Lamb is back. Jordan Pacheco was designated for assignment on Saturday, with Lamb taking his spot and getting pinched into the game late that night. He struck out while playing for Yasmany Tomas in that game, which was won by a home run from new catcher Welington Castillo. Lamb then got the start yesterday, striking out …
Continue Reading →We’ve seen this new front office be a little all over the place at times, but the trait that emerged at the end of spring training was ruthlessness. In trading Mark Trumbo in early June and in receiving a fringy receiver in return, ruthlessness may just have become the front office’s defining characteristic. The promise of moonshots did not end …
Continue Reading →The D-backs’ depth chart at starting pitcher this spring was something to behold. Josh Collmenter and Jeremy Hellickson had spots lined up, and behind them there were some 10-12 other contenders. Some worked their way out of the competition, like Allen Webster, but when the music stopped, several pitchers who might have won a spot in other years like …
Continue Reading →The human brain is a wonderful thing. To make sense of vast quantities of information, we put it all in categories, effortlessly. Much the way it would be difficult to walk if you had to will each muscle to work every time you used them, we rely on those categories and our intuition to function in day-to-day life. Taking decisions …
Continue Reading →Two-pitch pitchers are usually siphoned out of the starting pitcher pipeline and shunted to the bullpen. Archie Bradley has been a two-pitch pitcher this year, but is still a starter — in part because this whole two-pitch business is new. Bradley has had a changeup that graded well in the minors, and yet he’s thrown just 16 of them this …
Continue Reading →Things looked dark this time last week, after the D-backs were swept in Philadelphia and headed to Miami with a 15-21 record. But that’s the funny thing about going 6-1 in a week this early this season; even after dropping yesterday’s game in St. Louis, the D-backs are again within spitting distance of .500 with a 21-23 record. Looks like …
Continue Reading →We’re 40 games into the D-backs season, roughly a quarter of the way. The team has 37 stolen bases, ranking fifth in the majors — and to get to the sixth-place Padres, you drop all the way to 31. Even better, the D-backs have only been caught stealing 11 times so far, a 77% success rate that on the surface …
Continue Reading →Almost one quarter into the season, fourteen different D-backs position players have tallied at least ten different plate appearances. April offered some surprisingly excellent batting lines from not-(yet?)-superstars Jake Lamb and Ender Inciarte, but also some truly abysmal performances, especially from Tuffy Gosewisch and the D-backs middle infielders. The season stayed volatile when the calendar turned to May, nearly …
Continue Reading →A sweep at the hand of the lowly Phillies was not a fun way for anyone to spend their weekend, but the season probably reached its nadir (hopefully) at home just before that. After getting hammered by the Nationals on Monday and getting 16 hits and 14 runs’ worth of revenge the day after, the D-backs were positioned to take …
Continue Reading →It wasn’t too long ago that Aaron Hill looked like he was untradeable at any price. Through the end of April, Hill had a wRC+ of 20 — he was 80% below league average in creating runs. The weak ground balls that helped make that happen have all but disappeared now — in May, his line drive rate has more …
Continue Reading →It was a dreary couple of days to follow the D-backs early next week, waiting out two rain-postponed games with extra time to ponder an awful road series against the Dodgers. All we got for our trouble was an offensive breakout of mind-boggling proportions, a six-game stretch in which the D-backs maintained a .911 OPS. That’ll play.
As great as …
Continue Reading →D-backs starters have had trouble in the first inning so far this season. As Nick Piecoro wrote at the beginning of the week, the team is aware of this, and they’ve tried changing up prep techniques, etc. If this is a real problem, it’s a perfect time to use one of the best baseball ideas I have ever come across, …
Continue Reading →Last week, Baseball Prospectus introduced a new metric for pitchers: Deserved Run Average, or DRA. By zeroing in on some key component statistics while still baking in some context, we can get a read on how much of what the D-backs’ pitchers’ stats look like thus far is chance or bad luck, and how much is not far off the …
Continue Reading →The D-backs’ 2-4 week, complete with a sweep at the hands of the Dodgers, was one to forget — and yet just days after Archie Bradley took a line drive off the bat of Carlos Gonzalez, it sure seems like one we’ll remember for a long time. After Bradley was removed in the second inning of that Tuesday contest, …
Continue Reading →Josh Collmenter has gone through some unusual role changes in his five years in the big leagues. He’s not your typical pitcher to have been pitched in a relief role and as a starter; it’s not a matter of wipeout stuff that can’t necessarily be maintained in longer bursts, or a question of bouncing back and forth because he was …
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 @GaryHPhillips: Eric Reid has had a terrific season for the #Panthers, but he's also got an open collusion case pending against the… https://t.co/TGEwkcsMLW, 
RT @OJCarrascoTwo: The Lefty to my Pancho, @OutfieldGrass24 dives deep into pitch selection/repertoire and its impact on results. https://t.co/pjGN3tHMLX, - I’m old enough to remember when Lucroy was a thing people really wanted https://t.co/4LesmV67pC,
- It’s fancy drink night https://t.co/hDMDCMW1FQ,
- The @fangraphs home page is full of absolute gems. 2018 has been a really great year of baseball writing and their… https://t.co/akATOmcBbd,
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