Posts by: Ryan P. Morrison
Things may get a little thin toward the bottom, but next year’s lineup looks to be quite good at the top if everyone stays healthy. A.J. Pollock was a monster last season, Aaron Hill has typically been an above-average hitter, and Paul Goldschmidt can’t be beat. Against left-handed pitching, Mark Trumbo should produce runs at an above-average clip, and when …
Continue Reading →A handful of MLB players got a chance to see possible postee Kenta Maeda in Japan on November 12th, although if you were watching from home in Arizona, you were doing so at 1 am that morning. With that and GM Dave Stewart‘s recent public affection for Maeda (“I love Maeda“), it’s time to take …
Continue Reading →Congratulations to J.J. Putz on a fine MLB career that saw him dominate the best hitters in the universe for many years. Putz has officially hung up his spikes, and as Nick Piecoro wrote on Friday, he has taken a position as a special assistant to CEO Derrick Hall. It looks like Putz will work a bit more on the …
Continue Reading →So far, when we’ve talked about roster decisions like whether to non-tender Cliff Pennington or David Hernandez, it’s been in the context of two things: the likely Active Roster in April (the 25-man), and the juice-versus-squeeze question of likely salary. But the D-backs have a different set of 40-man questions coming up in advance of the Rule 5 Draft …
Continue Reading →Once upon a time, the D-backs organization considered storing baseballs in a humidor at Chase Field. The year was 2010, and a mountain of data was available showing the drastic effect the Coors Field humidor had had on Rockies home games. Jerry Dipoto had taken over as interim GM after Josh Byrnes was fired on July 2, 2010, and as …
Continue Reading →The biggest news in the baseball universe in the last week was that some team in San Francisco won the World Series. The biggest news in the D-backs universe: the club is listening on Miguel Montero.
That was the news from Fox Sports’s Ken Rosenthal, who credits the information to “major-league sources.” Those sources aren’t necessarily with the D-backs, …
Continue Reading →Yesterday, I explained that while the D-backs could use some rotation help to start 2015, the fact that Patrick Corbin and Archie Bradley and others may be available as the season progresses means that paying for consistency or bulk innings really just isn’t necessary. Injury risk guys are cheaper, and third-tier starting pitcher free agents may be all that the …
Continue Reading →The D-backs aren’t poor, but they aren’t rich. The 2014 Opening Day payroll of $112M isn’t likely to be repeated any time soon. And as we’ve previously explored, staying in the team’s stated $80M-$110M payroll bracket for next year would not leave a whole lot of room for new salaries; even if Cliff Pennington is non-tendered or traded, current players …
Continue Reading →In Episode 3 of The Pool Shot, Jeff and I jammed in a lot of D-backs goodness: the way the pitching staff shapes up for the spring currently, some odds and ends like the Chad Billingsley issue I flagged last week, and a whole bunch on the minor league system. I think I speak for Jeff when I say I’m …
Continue Reading →The D-backs are an interesting team, defensively: in 2013 they were the second-best fielding team in baseball, but in 2014, they were one of the league’s worst in defensive efficiency. We speculated on Episode 2 of The Pool Shot that the D-backs may shift more under new manager Chip Hale. I’d like to take it one step further now, …
Continue Reading →As with the D-backs’ own Trevor Cahill, Chad Billingsley gives us baseball outsiders a great example of how much sense it makes to a pitcher to sign a multi-year deal at salaries approaching market rate, regardless of whether it delays an even bigger potential payday. In Billingsley, we also may have an early test of how the new Dave …
Continue Reading →We broke down the hiring of Chip Hale on the just-released Episode 2 of The Pool Shot, our podcast, but Hale won’t be the only non-player in the dugout next season. It will be mostly familiar faces on Hale’s D-backs coaching staff next season, as Nick Piecoro reported last week. Double-A Mobile manager Andy Green will be the new …
Continue Reading →Kevin Towers came to the Diamondbacks with a sterling reputation as a bullpen builder. One of his first moves: trading Mark Reynolds and (later) John Hester to the Orioles for Kam Mickolio and David Hernandez. Looking at the deal in hindsight, it worked out well for the D-backs; Mickolio threw just 6.2 crappy innings for the team, but Hester …
Continue Reading →It’s impossible to know whether Chip Hale will be a very good manager. But in tapping him to replace Kirk Gibson, the D-backs front office seems to have made an excellent choice. It’s not like we know that as bench coach for the Athletics the last three years, Hale will bring some of that delicious A’s philosophy with him. …
Continue Reading →Inside the ‘Zona is a member organization of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, and it’s award voting season. As one of just two sites in the Arizona Chapter, we get a vote on the full slate of NL awards. In the five categories, there are a total of 23 names on our ballots — but only one Diamondback. So let’s start …
Continue Reading →Only 9 catchers qualified for the batting title this year. Miguel Montero was one of them, but notwithstanding the fact that he actually led the D-backs in games played (136) and plate appearances (560) in 2014, the number of plate appearances tallied by the average backup catcher is not trivial. For a contending club, a backup catcher can make a …
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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