Posts by: Ryan P. Morrison
Things started slow this year for Aaron Hill, and he was not helped by being subbed in for Jake Lamb against the likes of Clayton Kershaw and Madison Bumgarner. Things only slowed down from there, however, as he now sports a 13 wRC+ (87% below league average at creating runs). That’s a far cry from his career mark …
Continue Reading →And things were going so well. After a sweep at the hands of the Pirates, the D-backs stand with an 8-10 record a little over a tenth into the season, more or less on the 70-something pace for wins that we might have expected coming into this season. If there’s any consolation, the pitching has been not just better than …
Continue Reading →Coming into the season, one situation we were keeping a close eye on was Rubby De La Rosa‘s reliance on fastballs, which seemed to cause a problem for him in Boston, and seemed to make him something of a pre-breakout Dave Stewart. And yet, it’s Archie Bradley who has transformed before our eyes, throwing fastballs 75%, 71%, …
Continue Reading →With three full rotation turns and about a tenth of a season in the books, the D-backs pitching staff ranks 4th in ground ball percentage. It’s not a ton of time, but batted ball tendencies stabilize quickly — and the thing is, we were expecting the exact opposite. Josh Collmenter and Jeremy Hellickson have been fairly extreme as fly ball …
Continue Reading →Paul Goldschmidt had an OPS over 1.000 entering Sunday’s game, and after a walk and a home run in 5 plate appearances, he left it with an OPS of 1.088. That’s extremely good; 5 bombs in two weeks puts Goldy on a pace for 65, and what is “normal” for Goldy might be a pace of 3 per two weeks. …
Continue Reading →With a grand total of 7.1 innings pitched since June of 2012, Daniel Hudson does not have a large body of work in his current incarnation out of the bullpen. But even if there isn’t enough to do much with Hudson’s results — there is some clear evidence that he’s going about his business very differently. Whether it’s sustainable is …
Continue Reading →Having too many starting-caliber players is a good problem to have — especially in the outfield. This time last year, the four-way traffic jam of Yasiel Puig, Carl Crawford, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier was a well-publicized example, especially since the team had one of the best “fourth” outfielders in baseball already in Scott Van Slyke. As …
Continue Reading →The D-backs bullpen looks like a really good bullpen — it let up just two earned runs (shame on you, Evan Marshall!) through the first five games before allowing four more yesterday. And that looks super fortunate, because the bullpen has already had to contribute 24.2 innings in six — that’s more than 4 innings per game.
The bright …
Continue Reading →With innings under his belt, Randall Delgado has a career ERA of 4.23 as a starter, and 4.34 as a reliever. It’s not a ton of relief innings — just 66.1, compared to 257.1 as a starter — but it’s not like the results tell us that he’s been a significantly better reliever than starter so far in his career.…
Continue Reading →In addition to having some positional flexibility and not being an automatic out at the plate, most fourth outfielders have some kind of “special sauce” that can be particularly useful at particular times, such as great baserunning, being able to hit either righties or lefties particularly well, having some “pop,” or offering not just adequate but very good defense. Some …
Continue Reading →The Opening Day 25-man is now set, and it’s how it was set that should catch your eye. Yasmany Tomas struggled, and was sent to Triple-A Reno for work. Jake Lamb and Nick Ahmed looked great, and earned starting roles to begin the season. Archie Bradley looked somewhere between “dominant” and “ready,” pushing Trevor Cahill halfway across the country. Pitchers …
Continue Reading →The D-backs entered spring training with a dozen rotation candidates: two men with spots essentially locked up, a handful who had already broken into the majors, and an enviable group of longshots who were less likely for different reasons. In the second category were pitchers like Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster, Chase Anderson, and perhaps to …
Continue Reading →As reported by countless outlets in the last 36 hours, Archie Bradley is said by the D-backs to be under consideration to grab the pitching staff’s final spot — in the bullpen (Piecoro first). Bradley-as-reliever may be a good baseball decision, but it does not help put the team in a position to win, at least as I understand …
Continue Reading →Doing The Pool Shot podcast is only getting more and more fun, especially with some killer questions on Twitter that were absolutely fascinating to think about. Why is baseball so damned fun that way? All I know is: the season is about to start, and we’re about to have tons more to notice, work through and discuss, both on these …
Continue Reading →There’s no need to overreact to spring training statistics, but Enrique Burgos is forcing us to pay attention — and when March success seems part of a trend that started earlier, we’re really referring to a larger body of work. In a mere 9 innings of work in “official” spring games, Burgos has left a burnt-out trail of major and …
Continue Reading →When the Diamondbacks opened camp, they had a handful of lefties competing for spots in the bullpen to open the season. Oliver Perez was the only one with a firmly entrenched spot on the active roster. Robbie Ray, Vidal Nuno and Andrew Chafin were brought in to work as starters, but all have been considered for bullpen slots. Recent …
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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