Currently viewing the category: "Research"

Patrick Corbin is Officially Back

On August 18, 2015 By

Patrick Corbin’s 2014 Tommy John surgery was bad news for a number of reasons. First, it probably hurt like hell. Second, he didn’t get to pitch at all in 2014 and missed the first half of 2015. Third, it did cast some doubt on his ability to rediscover his role as a staff-leading pitcher. TJ’s are so common these days …

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Visualizing Paul Goldschmidt’s Slump

On August 11, 2015 By

Let’s face it, Paul Goldschmidt hasn’t been going so well lately. I mean, he’s still been good, but good isn’t great and great is what we’re accustomed to seeing out of Goldy. He’s an MVP-caliber player who’s been playing like a solid regular for the last month. Guys like David Peralta, Welington Castillo and A.J. Pollock have been picking …

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David Peralta Capitalizing on the Count

On August 10, 2015 By

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.

Peralta Year 1 Year 2

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 …

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Jake Lamb is Better Than You

On August 6, 2015 By

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 …

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Just How Good is Zack Godley?

On August 5, 2015 By

Zack Godley’s work in the major league rotation through three starts has really been something to behold. When Chase Anderson was finally decommissioned, it wasn’t Allan Webster, A.J. Schugel or Aaron Blair called up. Maybe the Diamondbacks have something against guys whose first names start with the letter “A” because they went in the exact opposite direction by calling up …

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Zack Godley’s First Impression

On July 27, 2015 By

I’m not sure which thing was more unexpected: that Zack Godley pitched an absolute gem on Thursday last week, or that he was called on to make the start in the first place. There are no flaws in the box score: 6 scoreless innings, in which Godley faced just three batters more than the minimum, striking out 7 while yielding …

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Can the D-backs Enter the 2015 Playoff Picture?

On July 15, 2015 By

It was a pretty big deal when baseball unveiled their plans to add a second Wild Card team to the existing playoff structure for the 2012 season. The single Wild Card system had been in place since 1994, and in case you don’t recall, there was no such thing as a Wild Card in baseball prior (unless you count what …

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Andrew Chafin’s Effectiveness May Have Staying Power

On July 9, 2015 By

The D-backs are pitching differently this year. The trend showed up early: the staff was re-designed to become much more ground ball oriented, it seemed. Several pitchers are throwing more sinkers than they have in the past, and the grounders have continued. But more than anything else, as Jeff examined yesterday, the team is pitching down in the …

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Pitching Down is Not Working for the D-backs

On July 8, 2015 By

The Diamondbacks are not a particularly good team when it comes to pitching. By ERA, they rank 26th in the majors. Since we know that Chase Field punishes pitchers more than almost any other park, that’s probably not the best way to look at them. If we choose a defense-independent, park-adjusted metric, they’re basically the same, ranking 24th…

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Robbie Ray Doing it His Way With Fly Balls and a Fourth (or Fifth) Pitch

On June 29, 2015 By

Call it whatever you like, but it’s not easy being a D-backs starter lately. Allen Webster followed up a strong debut with 9 ER in his next 9.2 innings, and Jeremy Hellickson, Rubby De La Rosa and Chase Anderson sport ERAs of 5.45, 5.35 and 5.35 in the last month, respectively. Through all the murk, though, Robbie Ray stands …

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What’s Behind Bad Rubby?

On June 24, 2015 By

If you look at ERA, Rubby De La Rosa has been pretty bad. That’s usually what we think anyways when we see an ERA hovering around five. And if that’s of concern to you, perhaps you’ve also asked yourself why he’s even still in the rotation. Survivorship is a big part of it – he hasn’t missed a start – …

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D-backs Pitching Staff Prioritizing Ground Balls Again?

On June 17, 2015 By

A funny thing happened at the start of the season: even though the rotation was to be manned by three fly ball pitchers, by the end of April the D-backs staff was fourth in the majors in ground ball percentage at 49.1%. It wasn’t all Brad Ziegler. Archie Bradley was a big part of the sharp change in the …

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Is Goldy’s BABIP Sustainable?

On June 10, 2015 By

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 …

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Is Welington Castillo the Answer Behind the Plate?

On June 5, 2015 By

Baseball is so unpredictable. Take, for instance, the struggles that Rubby De La Rosa had on Wednesday. Through two innings, he’d surrendered six earned runs to the Braves. Through three innings, the total was up to seven. Freddie Freeman had taken him yard twice, but still reeling from The Milwaukee Marathon, Chip Hale stuck with RDLR in order to try …

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Repertoire Changes, Positive Contributions from Forgotten Rotation Candidates Randall Delgado, Vidal Nuño

On June 3, 2015 By

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 …

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Why is Jeremy Hellickson Not Pitching Bad?

On June 2, 2015 By

Jeremy Hellickson‘s season stats are pretty bad. An ERA of 5.08, just over six strikeouts per nine innings and nearly three walks per nine, too. None of that is good by any measure. And none of that is a big surprise as Hellickson just isn’t an impact guy any way you want to paint it. As Ryan and I …

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