Currently viewing the category: "Research"

Will David Peralta Keep Hitting Lefties?

On December 28, 2015 By

Regardless of what happens next, David Peralta is flat-out amazing. You know his story, a pitcher in the Cardinals organization felled by shoulder injuries only to rise again as a position player. After signing out of independent ball and playing his first game in the D-backs organization on July 3, 2013 — just before his 26th birthday — he erupted …

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Stacking Up The D-backs Rotation

On December 22, 2015 By

We know that the Diamondbacks’ rotation will be better in 2016. Part of that is because it would have been hard to be worse, but there have also been some notable additions. You may have heard about this. I’m guessing you did. For a team with big aspirations, a boost to the rotation was at the top of the holiday …

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Can Yasmany Tomas Take a Big Leap Forward?

On December 17, 2015 By

When the Shelby Miller trade was announced, the news was certainly bittersweet. Maybe bitter-bittersweet depending on what you think of Aaron Blair‘s value and what you think Dansby Swanson can be down the road. But it was certainly bittersweet because of the loss of Ender Inciarte, a guy who’s been a much-needed spark at times for the D-backs …

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Shelby Miller: Top of the Rotation Starter

On December 10, 2015 By

The D-backs have set about rotation upgrades with the relentless abandon of Liam Neeson in Taken, signing Zack Greinke and trading for Shelby Miller in the last week without blinking at the cost. But those two pitchers have something in common other than some sweet new uniforms — they both surprised with especially low ERAs in 2015. So low, …

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2015’s Best & Worst Pitches by D-backs Relievers

On December 3, 2015 By

Earlier this week, we had some fun looking at the best and worst pitches from Diamondbacks starting pitchers in 2015. There were some really good pitches on disply there, even considering the struggles that the staff had last year. This time around we’ll position the microscope on the relievers, but there’s something notable to include here: relief pitchers have …

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2015’s Best & Worst Pitches by D-backs Starters

On December 1, 2015 By

They say you have to have at least two pitches to make the majors. Three if you want to start. Having any number of “average” major league pitches is impressive, really, but they’re certainly not all created equal. Some guys have one “plus” pitch they can lean on to get the job done most of the time – a pitch …

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Predicting Diamondbacks Starting Pitcher Success

On November 24, 2015 By

Pretty often here on the internet we talk about non-elite pitchers as being more or less crap shoots. It’s true, pitchers tend to be more volatile than hitters, mostly because they get hurt more often. Luck can swing an ERA pretty wildly and trying to make bets on run-of-the-mill pitchers is just hard to do in confidence. What will Chase …

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Double Plus: Chase Anderson’s Dropped Drop and Whiffed Whiffs

On November 19, 2015 By

Before 2015 became the season of grand experimentation, 2014 was quickly lost, somewhere between Sydney Cricket Grounds and Chase Field. It may not have had the same frenetic roster turnover as 2015, but 2014 was also an information-gathering season. Among the most important of that information: Chase Anderson has a silly-good changeup and major league skills. We were treated to …

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The D-backs’ Offense Can Still Improve

On November 17, 2015 By

While the focus of the winter is clearly upgrading the pitching staff, it’s easy to forget about what the team did and can do at the plate. As we’ve said all along, they’re going to score runs, usually enough runs to win. Take a look around the lineup and it’s easy to see why. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t …

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Appreciating an Awesome D-backs Defense

On November 9, 2015 By

You know, the idea of this website is to write about the things that are knowable and observable that sometimes go overlooked. At least, that’s generally the idea. I don’t think anyone who watched a bulk of Diamondbacks games in 2015 would have overlooked how good the team was defensively. It was readily apparent. Every night. And once Trumbo was …

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Double Plus: No More Mike Leakes

On October 30, 2015 By

Everyone knows the Diamondbacks will be searching for pitching this offseason. That’s because they should be. Above average offense? Check. Above average defense? Check. Even with a few warts, the position players have the situation locked down for the most part. But the pitching staff, and the rotation in particular, is a different story. So it stands to reason that …

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Double Plus: What Is Arizona Doing Drafting College Relievers?

On October 23, 2015 By

Okay, maybe the title is a little misleading. Drafting college relievers is defensible, if for one reason only: you get 40 picks and dammit, one of them is bound to be a college reliever by the odds alone. Another defensible reason might be that they’re a cheap bunch. It’s not that any of them have ever left me with the …

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Double Plus: Hitting Offense Hard

On October 16, 2015 By

There are a lot of theories about what drives offense in baseball. We know that on-base percentage is good, but not every team builds it’s team to maximize OBP. Some teams are low-OBP in nature but hit for boatloads of power. Other teams are low-power but also low-strike out. Both approaches can work – just ask the Astros (big …

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A Kind of Chip Hale Report Card

On October 13, 2015 By

Evaluating managers is really, really difficult. There are so many moving parts, so many factors and so many pieces that it’s seemingly impossible to really understand why every decision is made. Some things are obvious – entering the ninth inning with a two-run lead, bringing in Brad Ziegler makes sense. But putting on the hit-and-run? Creating the lineup every day? …

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D-backs Sport High Replay Challenge Success Rate, But Should Aim Lower

On October 12, 2015 By

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 …

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On-Base Percentage Driving the D-backs Offense Once Again

On October 8, 2015 By

There’s this book called Moneyball. You may have heard of it. Oh wait, you saw the movie? Well there was a book before the movie and it was better than anything even Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill could produce. People know I like baseball and most of the time, they start conversation like, “Oh, you write about stuff like …

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