Posts by: Ryan P. Morrison
Coming into this season, Rubby De La Rosa was heavily reliant on his four-seam fastball, adding a few sinkers in 2014 but really only using a slider and a change to break up the fastball monotony. Both of those secondary pitches tend to be the kind that you can only get away with throwing about 20% of the time, …
Continue Reading →The D-backs have used 20 different pitchers out of the bullpen this season — with three plus weeks to go. That’s the most since 2007, a year in which Tony Pena led the way in innings, Brandon Lyon led the way in value, and Jose Valverde led the way in saves. That year, the D-backs had 21 relievers toe the …
Continue Reading →The promotional offer was good. To move Bronson Arroyo‘s contract, the D-backs sold Touki Toussaint — and yet with Arroyo on the 60-day DL, by rule the Commissioner had to sign off on the trade. Getting another player on a similar timeline in Phil Gosselin made a lot of sense, and kept some eyebrows from raising. While the promotion …
Continue Reading →According to Western Civilization’s finest accomplishment—Wikipedia—Abraham Maslow considered a “self-actualizer” to be “a person who is living creatively and fully using his or her potentials.” The idea of potentials is easy to conceptualize in our beautiful game of baseball, maybe especially for pitchers: getting as many outs as possible, pitching as deep into games as possible, winning the …
Continue Reading →Daniel Hudson dominated in his first few outings by dominating the zone. He had that catch up with him at the end of April, but he saw his velocity rise for excellent stretches in May and June. His July results were also great, but maybe partly through some luck — and his August appeared pretty bad. Hudson has tallied …
Continue Reading →The second Jarrod Saltalamacchia was designated for assignment by the Marlins, a connection to the D-backs seemed obvious. Atrocious work behind the plate in 2014 seemed to disqualify him for a lot of clubs, but the D-backs, who had Jordan Pacheco banging around and had brought on Gerald Laird in spring training, seemed less concerned with those numbers. And when …
Continue Reading →Things haven’t gone so well for Robbie Ray lately. In his last five starts, Ray sports a 7.03 ERA, backed by an ugly 5.22 FIP. Walks have been Ray’s main issue; he’s averaged three per start over that same stretch, good for a 5.55 BB/9 that would make Allen Webster blush. That 5.55 BB/9 is the exact rate that we …
Continue Reading →Last week in setting a benchmark for wins needed from the rotation, I used a placeholder for wins we could expect from the bullpen: about 2.5 above replacement. It was intended to be conservative, but if this season is any guide, the bullpen could be quite a lot better than catch-all statistics like Wins Above Replacement would indicate. As …
Continue Reading →The more things change, the more they stay the same. With the unexpected news that Randall Delgado would get a short-term tryout in the rotation, possibly for the balance of the season, it made me think about our best-laid plans for the rotation from just before the season began. Going back to review it, I expected quite a few differences. …
Continue Reading →D-backs position players rank 3rd in the NL this season in FanGraphs’ version of Wins Above Replacement. Sure, they could be better — two teams actually are — but for a team that finished last in baseball just last year, that’s a pretty enormous accomplishment. Hitting is a big part of it. The D-backs currently have a 96 wRC+, and …
Continue Reading →Moving the roundup to Fridays has worked out quite well, thank you. At least, it did until the D-backs made two trades on a Saturday that didn’t necessarily warrant their own posts. So since it’s been six days, allow me to refresh your memory:
Traded LHP Oliver Perez to Houston Astros for LHP Junior Garcia
Traded SS Cliff Pennington and …
Continue Reading →On Friday, CEO Derrick Hall, CBO Tony La Russa, Randy Johnson and Luis Gonzalez are flying to Japan for a six-day “goodwill trip.” On their journey, might they stop in with members of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, fishing for a new starting pitcher? When Steve Gilbert reported in early July that the trip would happen, he quoted Hall on …
Continue Reading →Pop quiz, hot shot: can you name these two D-backs players based on their slash lines? It’s almost the same number of PA, so the comparison seems to work.
No? Well, what if I told you that the first line was a product of facing opposite-handed pitching 77% of the time, and the second, 83% of the time? Just from …
Continue Reading →Even before the season started, it looked like the pitching staff would be a difficult puzzle to solve in August, and even if there have been fewer comings and goings than we might have guessed, that might start to change here pretty soon — and we are looking at some interesting questions as 2016 starts to be more of the …
Continue Reading →On his return from the foot injury that cost him nearly two months, Jake Lamb did not have a good June: .224/.278/.313, not great but not exactly awful, either. In the two weeks following his return, Lamb collected just 6 hits and 3 walks in 42 PA. Since then, though, Lamb has been on a slow burn that now has …
Continue Reading →When Goldy made the Near-MVP Leap from a 124 wRC+ 2012 season to the 156 wRC+ level he attained in 2013, it seemed almost too good to be true. Here he was, this guy who was supposed to be pretty good but probably not great, and his hot start that year just never seemed to disappear. It was a new …
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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