Posts by: Ryan P. Morrison
This little piece is about Jeremy Hellickson. Sorry, just kind of didn’t work him into the headline. More specifically, though, it’s about the dilemma about whether tendering Hellickson a contract is a dilemma. The chances that they’ll tender him are pretty close to the “yeah, definitely” range. But should they be?
Hellickson started his career as a baseball conundrum …
Continue Reading →Per Cot’s Contracts, the 2014 D-backs payroll was the first nine-figure payroll for the team since its attempt to keep its World Series team intact in 2002. At just over $112 million to finish dead last in the majors, we saw an attempt to “retool” the roster last offseason, with $24 million cut in payroll one result.
Unlike 2015, 2016 …
Continue Reading →Former manager Buck Showalter helped to shape the D-backs franchise well before it ever had a major league team take the field in 1998, taking a job in 1996 and helping to build the organization from the ground up. A probably-not-self-described “micro manager,” I’ve always loved the guy despite his role in building a Yankees dynasty — in part because …
Continue Reading →This time last year, fringy almost-kinda-sorta major league pitchers were dropping out of the organization like flies, in part because the front office was dead set on remaking the staff (for good reason). This offseason, we may also see a particularly high turnover rate of pitchers in the organization, but not so much because the team is likely to add …
Continue Reading →The D-backs have a great young team of position players, and the makings of a pitching staff that could be at least solid. With the team on the upswing and organizational memory of .500 seasons in both 2013 and 2014, it’s easy to focus on how high the team can go. That’s important, and maybe the most important thing. Still …
Continue Reading →If you’re like me, you’ve gotten used to our brave new world of replay challenges. In the two seasons since replay was expanded, 2,664 challenges have been leveled by managers over that span, 1,268 of them successful (47.6%). It’s part of the fabric of the game now, but not of every game; in those two seasons, the D-backs have made …
Continue Reading →Chase Field is not exactly hospitable for pitchers, but compared to Chase, the Coors Field accommodations are about as nice as an O.co Coliseum clubhouse. Yet from his first MLB game in 2009 through the end of the 2014 season, Jhoulys Chacin managed to pitch to a 3.78 ERA over 672 innings — despite a FIP of 4.03. A …
Continue Reading →Why is Josh Collmenter so good? I’m not saying that because he was the starter on Opening Day, and I’m obviously not saying that because of his 5.24 ERA this season as a starter. The man still pitched a near-full-season’s worth of relief innings (52.1), and once again, the results were spectacular: a 1.89 ERA.
What Collmenter has been able …
Continue Reading →Want to flummox one of baseball’s best offenses? Try pitching low and away. It seems obvious, and it’s probably true of most teams, to some degree. But only three teams struck out at a higher rate on those pitches than did the D-backs — a 19.4% K rate is not very good. They’ve also avoided doing big time damage in …
Continue Reading →The gun may have been a little hot on September 1 in Colorado (all five of the D-backs’ top pitches by speed were thrown that day), but that’s when Rubby De La Rosa fired the season’s speedingest bullet. It finished an at bat, after Christian Adames had fouled off five other pitches — and we can only guess how Adames …
Continue Reading →The results are mixed, and yet the D-backs have had plenty of success getting ground balls out of their pitchers. It’s not that they’ve cultivated a ground balls staff through acquisition; it’s more that they’ve changed some of the pitchers they have. With some, like Josh Collmenter, that didn’t work out too well. With others… well, Zack Godley wasn’t …
Continue Reading →There are a lot of comings and goings in baseball; 39 different players have tallied a plate appearance for the D-backs this season. Quite a few more played for the D-backs in spring training. Many are gone. Some, like Gerald Laird, are forgotten. Others are not. With so many players in camp, it’s easy to forget that many can …
Continue Reading →This bizarre game that we love offers a good chance to use statistics because so much happens. Hundreds of plays in the field for most starters, hundreds of trips to the plate. Random things still can and do happen, along with things we can’t or don’t measure as we look at those events. Even more common than events on the …
Continue Reading →671 runs scored through last night puts the D-backs 6th in the majors, but second in the National League (1 run behind the Nationals). With Paul Goldschmidt right at the standard he set for himself at 2013, A.J. Pollock bettering his 2014 performance, and David Peralta in full breakout mode, all it’s taken is solid or better performances from most …
Continue Reading →This year, all of the first-round picks in the MLB draft signed with their teams (although one in particular did go down to the wire…). We won’t get a final draft order for the 2016 draft until well after the season ends, since some free agents could cause changes — but things are a little simpler than normal. And while …
Continue Reading →The D-backs staff’s ground ball percentage has tailed off a bit from where it was earlier this season, but it’s still up there — 46.1%, ranked 12th — and that’s still some kind of small shock, considering it entered the season with a staff of fly ball pitchers. A huge part of that is the relentlessness with which they’ve pitched …
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 @TheAthleticAZ: Who were those two main parts #Dbacks acquired in the Goldschmidt trade? Here's a detailed breakdown of just what t… https://t.co/ttfvcEDTwY, 
RT @ZHBuchanan: After getting a pick as part of the package for Paul Goldschmidt, the Diamondbacks will have seven of the top 80 se… https://t.co/gHS3jVymOC, - Which Pacific Northwest baseball team makes the playoffs first?,
- Jerry gonna Jerry, even if it literally kills him https://t.co/dxUmkHovxf,
RT @RyanDivish: Yes. Jerry Dipoto finalized the trade for Encarnacion from his hospital bed with assistant GM Justin Hollander stan… https://t.co/YbPfVOzCcK,
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