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The D-backs have lost six straight games, and that’s not even their longest losing streak this month. But the ugly four-game set in Colorado had a silver lining: the team leapfrogged the Rockies in the race to the bottom, and now lead in the sweepstakes for the first overall draft pick. Going into Thursday’s opener at Coors Field, the D-backs …

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Last Wednesday, Nick Piecoro posted an excellent, excellent piece on where the D-backs are headed in terms of incorporating analytics into their baseball operations department. And as much as we’d like to reserve judgment on where the club is headed in building its new front office, it may be that the writing is already on the wall.

From Piecoro’s piece:…

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This is an urgent time for the Diamondbacks organization, which could be set on any kind of path within the next month or so. Yet, the club and Chief Baseball Officer Tony La Russa have been moving deliberately through the process—as well they should. When Jeff Wiser and I talked D-backs on Saturday, he used the word “pragmatic,” and that’s …

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There are a few new faces with the Diamondbacks within the last week; Cody Ross is back from the 15-day DL, and Daniel Hudson in on the roster and ready to take the mound again for the first time in over two years. But there was another curious development: a successful waiver claim that brought Nolan Reimold to Arizona from …

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Jake Lamb‘s promotion to the bigs was not entirely unexpected, but it wasn’t ever the public plan; after all, Lamb had taken some time to adjust to new levels in the minors in the past, and he had spent a grand total of five games with Triple-A Reno. Despite a home run on Saturday, Lamb hasn’t exactly hit the …

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It’s not unusual for a team to pass many of its eligible players through revocable waivers in August, and for the Cubs, who may face a pretty serious 40-man roster crunch in the offseason, 26-year-old outfielder Brett Jackson was among the players waived. With the second-highest priority (2nd-worst record in the Cubs’ league), the D-backs claimed Jackson, then completing a …

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None of this “0.1% chance of the playoffs” nonsense for the Diamondbacks anymore (per FanGraphs/coolstandings); at this point, even if the D-backs accomplished the impossible and ran off a 20-game winning streak, they’d probably still be in third in the division. The D-backs are in fact-finding mode, as they should be, and that’s changed the complexion of the 25-man …

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Realistically, could the Diamondbacks’ season have gone any worse? After getting swept in Australia, the team was thirteen games under .500 at the end of April and never recovered. Patrick Corbin and David Hernandez were claimed by the UCL fairy in the spring, with new acquisition Bronson Arroyo following them to the surgeon’s table a few months later. A.J. Pollock

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The trade deadline looms on Thursday, and with 2014 a completely lost season, there is (and should be) pressure on GM Kevin Towers to cash in as much as he can. It seems from the rumors, however, that players other teams want aren’t the players Towers most wants to move. I know that seems obvious, but it’s not. We’re not …

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It’s a slow week for a roundup, what with no real baseball for four days in the last week — in fact, the D-backs have not lost since last week’s edition! The team managed to win all three games of their series with the Cubs this last weekend, although there were as many good points as bad. Also worth noting: …

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We sometimes — maybe even often — write editorial or opinion material here at this site. But the site’s soul is sabermetric research, and even the editorial content is informed first and foremost by sabermetric principles and lessons from the past. I’m quite proud to say that the four writers who write regular content grew up as fans of four …

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Say this for GM Kevin Towers: he knows how to pull the trigger on a trade. The last few days have seen plenty of D-backs news that has little to do with the team’s play on the field.

On Saturday, Towers spun LOOGY Joe Thatcher and speedster Tony Campana for a modest but extremely reasonable return. Jeff Wiser broke down

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A whirlwind month of transactions continued in the last week, with Chris Owings hitting the DL with his shoulder injury, a brief cameo by Zeke Spruill, and the return of Nick Evans. But to put Nick Ahmed on the 40-man (and 25-man) to replace Owings, Eric Chavez was transferred to the 60-day DL. Is that the end of …

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First thing’s first: please join me in welcoming Jeffrey Bellone to the Inside the ‘Zona team! Jeff has been writing baseball for quite a while now, most recently at Beyond the Box Score, and we’re really excited to have him. He’ll be writing regularly at both sites for the foreseeable future. Click here for more about Jeff, here to see …

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The D-backs demolished the Rockies in a three-game sweep in Denver last week before taking two of three from the Braves at home — their plus-14 run differential during the six games was enough to bump the run differential for the season to minus-51. The D-backs are 23-19 since April 22, winning at almost the exact rate we expected before …

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Johnny Cueto has been, arguably, the most dominant pitcher in baseball so far this season. On Saturday, he showed his stuff in Phoenix, taking a game from the D-backs with a seven plus inning performance. Unfortunately, he also took something much more valuable to the D-backs: the structural integrity of the fourth metacarpal in A.J. Pollock‘s right hand.

Pollock …

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