One step in our Offseason Plan process last month was a search for trade targets of a certain type: starting pitchers that, while good, were overpaid on existing contracts due to expire in 1-3 (ideally, two) years. Unless the D-backs payroll rises in a big way, there is a payroll crunch coming toward the end of the Contention Window, and …
Continue Reading →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 …
Continue Reading →If you could add any player to the D-backs without regard to feasibility, who would it be? I wondered that question out loud on Twitter on Saturday, and got a mixed bag of different kinds of responses. Among the pitchers named in response: Carlos Carrasco, Sonny Gray, Zack Greinke, Kenta Maeda, Clayton Kershaw, and Chris …
Continue Reading →We’ve never seen anything like Aroldis Chapman. Once upon a time, Billy Wagner seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime unicorn, a lefty closer who could regularly hit 100 mph. I once heard a report that a right-handed closer — Billy Koch — once hit 104 mph on a radar gun, a legend so unbelievable that I never expected to see that …
Continue Reading →Maybe you saw it. The Inside the ‘Zona 2015-2016 Offseason Plan came out on Wednesday. It included a few trades – two for relievers. Neither of those relievers was Aroldis Chapman even though he’s expected to be traded sometime in the next two weeks or so. The Reds are pretty determined to move him (and Todd Frazier and maybe some …
Continue Reading →The Contention Window is upon us. Over the past fourteen months, the team has gambled again and again on contention in 2016 and 2017, going all in on college players in the 2015 draft (especially relievers) and mortgaging the very distant future in signing Yoan Lopez this spring and the less distant future in trading Touki Toussaint to …
Continue Reading →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 …
Continue Reading →A year after doing an excellent job protecting its players from the Rule 5 draft, the D-backs had their work cut out for them this season. After cutting Jamie Romak, trading for Chris Herrmann and trading Jeremy Hellickson away, the team had just two spots to use if it kept everyone else on the 40 man roster. All that …
Continue Reading →A couple of weeks back, Ryan and I spent the better part of a week in Scottsdale talking baseball and taking the marvelous action that is the Arizona Fall League. Salt River’s games have wrapped up for the season as they won’t be playing in the AFL championship, and with the seasons of Arizona’s prospects officially finished (aside from those …
Continue Reading →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 …
Continue Reading →It has been less than a year since the news broke that the Diamondbacks had secured Yasmany Tomas’ services. I was having a beer by myself in a bar downtown when the text came in. I confirmed the news, swallowed my beer and jumped on the train – rushing home so that I could write it up for Beyond the …
Continue Reading →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 …
Continue Reading →Some change is normal when a new GM is named, but last offseason, the recalibration that GM Dave Stewart and CBO Tony La Russa undertook was anything but normal. Retooling is the kind of thing you see when a team just missed, and expiring club control would make some turnover inevitable; when the D-backs entered the 2014-2015 offseason, they did …
Continue Reading →News of the trade that sent Daniel Palka to the Minnesota Twins for catcher (?) Chris Herrmann seemed to cause a bit of stir Tuesday afternoon. After all, it was the first trade of the offseason and everyone’s looking for a headline. The deal certainly caught Diamondbacks fans by surprise. And Palka was a guy they’d heard plenty about given …
Continue Reading →Life rears its hoary head. In lieu of nothing or another piece explaining why Jake Lamb is the greatest thing since man discovered the greatness of cooked meat, I’m re-posting a piece from June 2014. The players involved? Not so relevant. But after a season of experiments, the D-backs are unlikely to make the leap to contention only with …
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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- I am personally in favor of never reviewing any questionable calls involving Larry Fitzgerald ever again and just g… https://t.co/veTRK4s6y0,
- I’ve let @OldHossRadbourn down once again https://t.co/AyA3ZJkNS5,
RT @GaryHPhillips: Eric Reid has had a terrific season for the #Panthers, but he's also got an open collusion case pending against the… https://t.co/TGEwkcsMLW, 
RT @OJCarrascoTwo: The Lefty to my Pancho, @OutfieldGrass24 dives deep into pitch selection/repertoire and its impact on results. https://t.co/pjGN3tHMLX, - I’m old enough to remember when Lucroy was a thing people really wanted https://t.co/4LesmV67pC,
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