On Wednesday I called out some very small changes that you’ll find in Nick Ahmed‘s swing. When I had the inspiration for the article, he was second on the team in offense (by wRC+). Since then, he’s gone 0-16 with a day game Thursday to try to get back on track. Let’s hope that examining Jean Segura‘s …
Continue Reading →The D-backs have adopted an aggressive old-school approach to building a baseball team. Maybe we should have seen it coming after renowned experimenter Tony La Russa took the helm; you can almost imagine him taking the job as Chief Baseball Officer in part because of some zeal in adopting strategies he wished he could have adopted as a manager. However …
Continue Reading →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 …
Continue Reading →Once upon a time, Archie Bradley was a top prospect with two plus or better pitches, a developing change and command issues that seemed to be improving. In June 2013, he rose to become Keith Law’s “best pitching prospect,” ahead of a recently-drafted Mark Appel and hit-or-miss types in Taijuan Walker and Dylan Bundy. Nothing was guaranteed, but with …
Continue Reading →The minor leagues are well under way. Last week we took a look at the high minors and some players who might make an impact. A couple of them have already been called up to the majors as Evan Marshall and Archie Bradley have found themselves in the middle of the fray as the D-backs open up a series in …
Continue Reading →Earlier this spring, Ryan wrote a really fantastic piece about Patrick Corbin and his slider. By association, the piece was also about Patrick Corbin’s changeup. As Corbin put it to MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert, the changeup is a point of emphasis this seasons
…Continue Reading →“My changeup is probably something I’m trying to get to where I can throw it as much as
When the D-backs last wore one of the new teal uniforms/won a game, they did so in dramatic fashion on Tuesday, felling the Dodgers 4 to 2 on the back of home runs from Nick Ahmed and Paul Goldschmidt, a Socrates Brito triple, and the finest pitching performance this club has had to date this year: a sturdy 6-inning, …
Continue Reading →In the eighth inning of a 4-2 loss to the Cubs on Saturday, something special happened. Rubby De La Rosa pitched as a reliever. Now, we’ve had some zany ideas around here in the past, like experimenting with a team full of Gerardo Parra‘s, utilizing a starter by committee approach or using Archie Bradley as a bullpen ace. …
Continue Reading →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 …
Continue Reading →Only weirdos refresh minor league roster pages every twenty minutes. That officially makes me (and hopefully a couple of others) a weirdo. Minor league rosters started taking shape about a week and half ago and can reveal certain clues about how the team feels about its prospects. Best of all, we get to see which players will be facing new …
Continue Reading →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. …
Continue Reading →We warned you over the winter not to forget Evan Marshall, and he reemerged in spring training, holding Cactus League hitters to a .205 batting average in 11 innings with 8 punchouts and just 2 free passes. Marshall’s rookie season was excellent by any metric, but it wasn’t just the 2.74 ERA over five months of pitching: it …
Continue Reading →Time shares among position players are great; they add value. Positional flexibility is also valuable, regardless of how a team takes advantage of it. This year, the D-backs look poised to take advantage of both of those things, in a way that could affect their place in the standings. Chris Owings and Brandon Drury each played a second position last …
Continue Reading →As of the moment this post goes live, it’ll be something like 33 hours since the moment Zack Greinke got pulled from his first Diamondbacks start. That’s about an hour earlier than he and everyone else would have liked. An hour and a half if you’re greedy. To say it didn’t go well would be an understatement. He sort of …
Continue Reading →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 …
Continue Reading →@ryanpmorrison
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,
- RT @OutfieldGrass24: Patrick Corbin has a WPA of .318 and it's only the fifth inning.,
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RT @BobYoungTHI: The Q&A with @LarryFitzgerald from @sbordow is a terrific example of the content available. Check out the 40-percen… https://t.co/7d20QWHTqs, - THIS https://t.co/dZuhIFDy63,
- I don't know that I believe Robbie Ray is *not* available, but I firmly believe that the asking price would be very, very steep.,
RT @sbordow: Please take a couple of minutes to read, in Larry Fitzgerald's own words, why his late mother's influence still dri… https://t.co/pknei9w6YQ, 
RT @ZHBuchanan: Every year since 1951, baseball has crowned a king. Literally.
Behind an old-school tradition whose origins are a… https://t.co/GXwvdrI1ut,
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