The D-backs Are Better Than This, Right?

On January 13, 2016 By

It’s funny how the outlook for the Arizona Diamondbacks largely depends on who you hear it from. By that I mean, the team clearly loves what they’ve done this winter. They should, they have some productive, shiny, new toys. The general baseball media has the team entrenched as a contender, but perhaps as one that’s still considered just a little …

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Will the Ends Justify the Means?

On January 12, 2016 By

It’s expensive to own a major league baseball team. If I win Powerball, I’ll probably buy a team and move them to Portland, Oregon and call ’em The Jeffs (but after taxes, shoot, I probably still can’t do it – I’ll start a GoFundMe page for the rest). To own a team, you really need to understand business because the …

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Remembering Not to Forget Evan Marshall

On January 11, 2016 By

Few bright spots in the D-backs’ last-place 2014 season were brighter than Evan Marshall. Called up to pitch in his first game on May 6, 2015, Marshall left a path of destruction in his wake, pitching to a 2.74 ERA in 49.1 innings. His outstanding results looked completely earned; that ERA was backed by a 2.89 FIP, and while …

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Double Plus: Goldschmidt vs. HOF First Basemen

On January 8, 2016 By

Yesterday I wrote a lot about Paul Goldschmidt as a possible Hall of Fame candidate. If you didn’t read the full installment, I’d suggest going back and taking a gander. Today things won’t be so long and exhaustive. Let’s keep it short because that’s what Double Plus Fridays are all about anyways (at least in theory).

I decided to …

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Double Plus: Changing My Mind About Signing Howie Kendrick

On January 8, 2016 By

The D-backs look like a good team right now. No, they probably aren’t the 116 win 2001 Seattle Mariners good, but that’s okay — I’m pretty sure some other team won the World Series that year anyway. Right now, I like the team’s chances of making the playoffs. But that doesn’t mean they couldn’t be better.

With little left on …

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Will Paul Goldschmidt Make the Hall of Fame?

On January 7, 2016 By

Yesterday was big for me. I’m not usually one for the Hall of Fame discussion because I think it has gotten away from what was intended in some ways and the arguments are often either pedantic or ill-informed. Those aren’t great options, so I usually steer clear. This year, however, Ken Griffey, Jr. was up for enshrinement and, having grown …

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Salary Arbitration Strategies: Shelby Miller, Welington Castillo, Daniel Hudson

On January 6, 2016 By

If they haven’t already settled on a 2016 salary, seven D-backs players will file for arbitration on January 12th, next Tuesday, with exchanging figures with the team a few days later, on Friday, January 15th. So what’s going on with those cases right now? On Monday, I ran through pre-figure exchange strategies for both sides with respect to Rubby De …

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D-backs Go Big, Dodgers Go Smart?

On January 5, 2016 By

If you read The Inside the ‘Zona 2015-16 Offseason Plan, you probably noticed that we advocated for signing a couple of short-term, mid-level starting pitchers. No one in their right mind thought that Zack Greinke was an option but apparently he was after the appropriate amount of deliberation. Shelby Miller was always sort of on the radar but then …

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Pre-Filing Arbitration Strategies for D-backs, Players

On January 4, 2016 By

The baseball arbitration dance is set to its own rhythm. Things become a little more clear once players and teams have filed figures, but a lot is happening behind the scenes right now, and more will happen before figures are exchanged on January 15th. At that point, the game has fewer dimensions — and maybe no negotiation dimensions, if the …

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Why the 2015 Sinker Experiments Didn’t Work: Understanding Platoon Splits of More Kinds of Fastballs

On December 31, 2015 By

Its not that often that I feel like the scales have fallen from my baseball eyes, but it just happened, and I’m excited to share why. It’s not that this one thing Explains All Baseball, but the effect seems to be enormous: whether or not a pitch has a platoon split has much to do with how vertical the movement …

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An Early Look at D-backs Bench Options

On December 30, 2015 By

The Diamondbacks had one major need this winter and they’ve filled it about as adequately as possible. Yes, they could still use an impact reliever, but by and large, the work is done. Finding an impact reliever might be difficult-to-futile at this point considering the team probably knows full and well who is and who is not available at this …

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Can the D-backs Exploit Batted Ball Matchups in 2016?

On December 29, 2015 By

Last seasons, Chip Hale earned a gold star for his work mixing and matching players in the outfield. With five players initially, then four players for the three spots, he allocated the time about as perfectly as possible. Down the stretch, A.J. Pollock played roughly 95% of the time, David Peralta played about 85% of the time, Ender Inciarte played …

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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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Patrick Corbin is the New A.J. Pollock, Maybe

On December 24, 2015 By

I like Patrick Corbin. I like A.J. Pollock. I like most things and most people, at least initially. My good feelings about the Diamondbacks’ lefty and center fielder have endured because they strike me as fine young gentlemen who do good thing routinely for the Arizona Baseball Diamondbacks.  They’re similar in certain ways and very different in others. …

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The Looming Question: Patrick Corbin’s 2016 Innings Total

On December 23, 2015 By

With Daniel Hudson‘s second TJ continuing to haunt the team in the background, Patrick Corbin was brought back very gingerly in 2015 — he made his debut more than 16 months after his surgery, with a unusually high number of simulated games and a handful of minor league rehab appearances. As a result, Corbin threw just 85 innings in …

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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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