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Last night Brandon McCarthy started the home opener for the Diamondbacks. He pitched six and two-thirds innings, giving up six hits and five earned runs. Not the result he hoped for, but there were interesting changes I want to note. One start is too small of a sample size to draw any statistical conclusions, but we can see a change …
Continue Reading →Gone is the offseason, and gone is last weekend’s series in Australia. In their first game back on Wednesday, the D-backs lit up the Cubs like a pinball machine with a ridiculous 20 hits. Yesterday, the team didn’t look so hot, but we’ll let that slide. It’s time for a couple of tune ups at Chase, a day off, and …
Continue Reading →You’ve heard it all winter long: the Diamondbacks thrive on good defense. Gerardo Parra was simply incredible in right field last year en route to his second Gold Glove. Paul Goldschmidt, never one to be left out, earned one of his own at first base. A.J. Pollock was stellar in center, Gregorius was solid at short, Prado was just fine …
Continue Reading →Losing the opening game of the 2014 season in front of a international audience wasn’t what any of us wanted. The Dodgers winning the opening game of the 2014 season is a close second. I’m just going to say it now so I don’t have to later: I can’t stand those guys. Moving on, perhaps the thing that we should …
Continue Reading →After two years with the Australian Baseball Federation (now “Baseball Australia”), Ben Foster left his position there in June 2009 to take a position as the Australian Baseball League’s first employee. “It was just me in an office, and no one sitting around me,” said Foster, who is the ABL’s General Manager. Less than five years after he began with …
Continue Reading →As noted here several times in the last few months, the D-backs were extremely average in many ways last season. One exception was defense, in which the team excelled; but another appears to be players’ success in hitting with two strikes – especially in full counts. Nobody ever said this team isn’t gritty.
The overall batting average in the National …
Continue Reading →Defense is something that’s been talked about quite a bit this offseason. Whether it’s a discussion of who should be the starting shortstop, the addition of Mark Trumbo to the outfield or even in evaluating just how good Gerardo Parra was in 2013, defense has been a prominent part of the discussion. Lucky for us, FanGraphs just rolled out a …
Continue Reading →The D-backs did some things really well last season. Baserunning was not one of those things. The D-backs were dead last in terms of how they affected games with stolen base attempts, but they also weren’t particularly good at other aspects of baserunning, either.
First, a quick look at how the D-backs fared overall. The “BsR” component of WAR combines …
Continue Reading →It’s no secret, the Diamondbacks played a ton of extra innings last year. It was brutal for the fan base to see blown saves or inept offense drive the team to extras time and time again. It led to some really exciting baseball on the one hand, but I can’t help but wonder what kind of toll it took on …
Continue Reading →As has been reported by Nick Piecoro and others, Gerardo Parra brought more than just a new one-year contract with him to spring training this season — he’s also changed his batting stance. According to the Piecoro report, the new stance is less open, with his front foot a little closer to the plate and his right leg bent before …
Continue Reading →An 81-81 team overall, last season the Diamondbacks actually did quite a bit better as series progressed. In games 1 of individual series, Arizona’s winning percentage was just .442 (23-29). In games 2, it rose to .510 (26-25). And in games 3 or 4 of series, the team was a real winner (.543 W%, 32-27). That advantage may not seem …
Continue Reading →In a hot-button post last week, I mentioned the myth of lineup protection. We’ve heard the D-backs leadership discuss the acquisition of Mark Trumbo as a way to protect The People’s MVP, Paul Goldschmidt. The concept of lineup protection is debatable at best and isn’t even something that all managers believe in. In reading through recent comments here …
Continue Reading →Injuries happen in baseball. That’s a given. Pitchers get hurt more frequently than hitters, which is something that we should also be very familiar with. Injuries test a team’s depth and the next man up has to be able to perform at an adequate level for a team with playoff aspirations. The Diamondbacks are one of those teams and they …
Continue Reading →The Diamondbacks were great defensively, but not at all aspects of defense. One component of both of the most-used advanced defensive statistics is range; for The Fielding Bible‘s Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), that component is Runs Plus Minus Saved (rPM). That’s right, there’s a statistic that bears my initials, and the D-backs were the best at it in 2013. …
Continue Reading →On Tuesday, Freddie Freeman and the Atlanta Braves agreed to a whopping $135M, 8-year contract extension, avoiding a hearing in what would have been Freeman’s first year of arbitration eligibility. Armed with the Freeman contract details, we’re in a better position to evaluate what just might be Towers’s best move at the helm of the D-backs front office, which seems …
Continue Reading →Yesterday, Jeff took a look at the Diamondbacks’ logjam at shortstop, concluding that something’s got to give. I agree with Jeff completely, and so I thought I’d suggest some potential trades that Arizona could pursue. This is all speculation, of course.
Now, who the Diamondbacks could trade is very much up for discussion. Since I’m suggesting trade matches, I’m …
Continue Reading →@ryanpmorrison
Congrats to @OutfieldGrass24 on a beautiful life, wedding and wife. He deserves all of it (they both do). And I cou… https://t.co/JzJtQ7TgdJ, - 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,
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- RT @OutfieldGrass24: Dynasty question: Daniel Espino, Emerson Hancock, and Quinn Priester. Gotta cut one. Who should it be?,
- Dynasty question: Daniel Espino, Emerson Hancock, and Quinn Priester. Gotta cut one. Who should it be?,
- Just finished The Sopranos. Late to the party, I know. Gotta say, this isn’t one I’m likely to rewatch.,
- Old friend alert https://t.co/AMp9iNKENL,
RT @DefectorMedia: MLB owners have a lot of power to influence the public’s perception of the CBA proceedings, and they’re willing to… https://t.co/SMs2XAFAtF,
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