Currently viewing the category: "Research"

Has Nick Ahmed Improved at the Plate?

On April 20, 2016 By

The beginning of the season is such a weird time for all of baseball. There are guys like Jeremy Hazelbaker, who played seven minor league seasons without seeing the majors until this year at the age of 28, hitting .351/.381/.730. There are also guys like Kyle Seager, a multi-time All Star, hitting .119/.245/.238. Our intuition tells us that …

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Robbie Ray Getting More Efficient

On April 12, 2016 By

Last season, Robbie Ray seemed to balance on the edge of a knife. He lived on the edge of the zone to his arm side, tantalizing hitters with fastballs that normally they could drive — if only they didn’t have Ray’s tremendous arm-side run, carrying them even farther outside. When “The Slurge” was delivered, you couldn’t help but lose your …

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Double Plus: Earliest Season Velocity Reports

On April 8, 2016 By

It’s a magical time of year, the time in which mountains are made of molehills, common sense proves evasive and The People generally freak out. The Diamondbacks have sunk below .500 for the first time in 2016 as of this writing (hopefully they’ve “surged” to even in the standing by the time of this reading) and we’re all basically doomed. …

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The Platoon Continuum for D-backs RHP Relievers

On April 5, 2016 By

The D-backs will roll with just Andrew Chafin as a lefty out of the ‘pen to start the season, with Brad Ziegler, Daniel Hudson, Tyler Clippard, Randall Delgado, Silvino Bracho and Jake Barrett all throwing from the right side. With Josh Collmenter omitted because of a trip to the DL and Enrique Burgos and Evan Marshall…

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How the D-backs Can Make the Playoffs Without A.J. Pollock

On April 4, 2016 By

No one ever said it was going to be easy and, well, it just got harder. The Diamondbacks will be without star centerfielder A.J. Pollock for the bulk of 2016 season, if not all of it. That’s a bitter pill to swallow for a team that has postseason aspirations. Those aspirations are still intact, however. Don’t for a second think …

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Patrick Corbin and Fewer Sliders

On March 31, 2016 By

Go to Chase Field this April, and you may notice some sliders missing. In addition to that glaring omission from the stadium menus, Patrick Corbin may be throwing his best pitch less often — and “throwing his best pitch less often” doesn’t exactly sound good. Corbin has had a lot of his success by limiting his fourseam usage in favor …

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3 Simple Rules for Starting Our Shelby Miller

On March 29, 2016 By

Shelby Miller is an unusual pitcher. Remaking himself partway through 2014, even the batted ball exit velocity data shows him to have been a contact manager last year — and you have no farther to look than the quality of the contact against him to see that his 3.02 ERA last year wasn’t as much about luck as you might …

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Let’s Make Archie Bradley a Bullpen Ace (For Now)

On March 17, 2016 By

Look, there’s plenty of competition for the fifth starter race, but at the end of the day, that spot’s going to Robbie Ray. Competition is fine and all, but if everyone remains healthy, the job is his. He earned last year and he’s pitched very well this spring. It’s a pretty easy call as far as I can …

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Jake Lamb Stance Adjustment Less About Weaknesses, More About Strength

On March 8, 2016 By

I say this in the most sober way possible: I’ve probably given up the claim of objectivity when it comes to Jake Lamb. But my “appreciation” was born out of something objective: an evidence-based belief that he’d reach his imagined ceiling, and that the (very few) players of his ilk get short shrift in the majors. The guy looked …

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Josh Collmenter: Short Reliever?

On March 2, 2016 By

The D-backs finished last season at 79-83, but actually outscored their opponents 720 to 713. With that positive run differential, we’d expect better record: something in the order of 81-81 or 82-80. The D-backs played better than their record would indicate, and that shortfall of 3 or 4 wins could just be luck. It could also be a matter of …

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Why Doesn’t Rubby’s Changeup Work?

On March 1, 2016 By

I’ve been room-temperature about Rubby De La Rosa since he arrived in Arizona. Watching him in Los Angeles and Boston a time or two, he was the kind of pitcher that had the raw stuff but didn’t maximize it. At 23 or 24, that was understandable. Now, just a few days before De La Rosa turns 27, it remains a …

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Double Plus: Silvino Bracho Spinning His Way to Success

On February 26, 2016 By

Pitchers and catchers and everyone else have reported to Spring Training. The season is drawing nearer all the time (not hyperbole, this is really happening). Arizona’s roster will start to take shape over the next couple of weeks as games start, someone (or two) gets hurt, etc. The team doesn’t appear to be all that close to putting a roster …

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Two-Strike Pitches and Robbie Ray’s Lack of Innings

On February 25, 2016 By

It would appear that Robbie Ray is some kind of Inside the ‘Zona favorite. In the short time that he’s donned Sedona Red, he’s been covered here at length. Initially it was talking about the trade that brought him to Arizona. Then it was talk of his new breaking ball and how he was getting the job done with …

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How Much of Greinke’s Sparkling 2015 Was Luck?

On February 24, 2016 By

Zack Greinke has a great track record — in each of the last eight seasons, he’s made at least 28 starts, pitching as an ace or close to it in every one. Last year, though, the results were astonishing. In 32 starts, he managed 222.2 innings, an average of just under 7 per start which was the third-highest rate of …

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A Unique Set of Skills

On February 23, 2016 By

Relief pitchers are weird. Wait, that’s unfair. I’m sure most of them are normal in so far as professional athletes are concerned. But analyzing them is weird. There are so many variables to account for that it’s really difficult to do them justice. Which part of the lineup are they facing? What’s the leverage of the situations they’re placed in? …

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If Things Go Wrong

On February 22, 2016 By

After a tour around the 70th percentile projections for D-backs players earlier this week and scaling them back to get them to the right playing time levels, we saw between 13 and 14 wins of “reasonably optimistic” room over and above the PECOTA-based projection of 78 wins this year from Baseball Prospectus. But what about the other direction? Is it …

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