Currently viewing the category: "Roundup"

Who else might the D-backs target this offseason? Spoiler alert: the answer may be “none of the above,” although the team could be in position to pick up an extra piece or two in February as they did with Oliver Perez last year. The jewels of what remains of the free agent class are still Max Scherzer and James Shields

Continue Reading

It was not so long ago that the D-backs were making significant moves so frequently that we were fighting off worthy topics with sticks. In the last days of December, we get to return to doing what we do best: analyzing to death on-field performance and the finest minutiae the transactions list has to offer.

Matt Swartz and MLBTradeRumors projected …

Continue Reading

The 2014-15 offseason hasn’t disappointed one bit from an entertainment standpoint. There have been some massive trades (thank you A.J. Preller) and major free agent signings (remember when Jon Lester held everyone captive for two days?). Some teams were expected to push for contention this offseason (Cubs) while other clubs have surprised people with their aggressiveness (White Sox and Padres). …

Continue Reading

Happy holidays! Jeff and I are both out of pocket for much of this week, and our coverage may be a little abbreviated. From us to you, though: stay safe and have a wonderful time.

Last week, I took a look at the Diamondbacks’ top trade assets from a “surplus value” perspective, which isn’t perfect. Ceiling can be more or …

Continue Reading

If you’ve never given our podcast (The Pool Shot) a try, now would be a really good time — Jeff and I worked our way through both major trades last week, and had a ton of fun doing it. We also hit the Oscar Hernandez acquisition through the Rule 5 draft, catching in general, and the potential weakness of having …

Continue Reading

Toward the end of Episode 8 of The Pool Shot, Jeff and I talked through some sixteen left-handed “middle of the order” bats, guys who had hit a decent number of home runs against right-handed pitchers in 2014 and who could conceivably (in my mind) be available. We left out a few first basemen who couldn’t play elsewhere, but otherwise …

Continue Reading

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving! It would be weird if you didn’t — anyone who follows the Diamondbacks got a chance to bask in the afterglow of the Yasmany Tomas news from the day before. We gorged ourselves on the Tomas signing in Episode 7 of The Pool Shot, and at this point, we still don’t know the …

Continue Reading

At what point did you realize during the 2014 season that that you had been watching a train wreck? The D-backs’ first few weeks of games were so bad that it essentially killed the season. We knew that, but nothing put an exclamation point on it quite like when Mike Bolsinger was installed in the rotation.

Bolsinger was coming off …

Continue Reading

When Kevin Towers was “removed” in September, I doubt many people thought the D-backs would make the first significant trade of the offseason. I know I didn’t — but that’s arguably what new GM Dave Stewart and the front-office-by-committee pulled off on Friday night, trading #7 prospect Andrew Velazquez and #8 prospect Justin Williams for Jeremy Hellickson.

Jeff wrote …

Continue Reading

Congratulations to J.J. Putz on a fine MLB career that saw him dominate the best hitters in the universe for many years. Putz has officially hung up his spikes, and as Nick Piecoro wrote on Friday, he has taken a position as a special assistant to CEO Derrick Hall. It looks like Putz will work a bit more on the …

Continue Reading

The biggest news in the baseball universe in the last week was that some team in San Francisco won the World Series. The biggest news in the D-backs universe: the club is listening on Miguel Montero.

That was the news from Fox Sports’s Ken Rosenthal, who credits the information to “major-league sources.” Those sources aren’t necessarily with the D-backs, …

Continue Reading

In Episode 3 of The Pool Shot, Jeff and I jammed in a lot of D-backs goodness: the way the pitching staff shapes up for the spring currently, some odds and ends like the Chad Billingsley issue I flagged last week, and a whole bunch on the minor league system. I think I speak for Jeff when I say I’m …

Continue Reading

We broke down the hiring of Chip Hale on the just-released Episode 2 of The Pool Shot, our podcast, but Hale won’t be the only non-player in the dugout next season. It will be mostly familiar faces on Hale’s D-backs coaching staff next season, as Nick Piecoro reported last week. Double-A Mobile manager Andy Green will be the new …

Continue Reading

It’s impossible to know whether Chip Hale will be a very good manager. But in tapping him to replace Kirk Gibson, the D-backs front office seems to have made an excellent choice. It’s not like we know that as bench coach for the Athletics the last three years, Hale will bring some of that delicious A’s philosophy with him. …

Continue Reading

We can officially close the books on Kevin Towers as a D-backs employee; Nick Piecoro has reported that Towers will leave to seek a position with another team. According to the article, Tony La Russa said “Towers told him he felt remaining with the team presented a sort of ‘awkwardness'” under the new regime.

I think there’s a good chance …

Continue Reading

It’s been a very eventful last few days, with news of the hirings of Dave Stewart and De Jon Watson leaking Thursday, their first press conference Friday, Kirk Gibson getting fired shortly before that press conference, the Diamondbacks locking up next year’s #1 overall pick… and despite the playoffs, plenty of people were paying attention to Arizona.

But first, a …

Continue Reading