As volatile as relievers tend to be in 60-odd inning samples, it’s hard to get very excited about performance over shorter spans. If you want a great debut, you have no farther to look than record holder Brad Ziegler, who set a new standard with 39 consecutive scoreless innings to start his career. If you want greatness from a …
Continue Reading →You know, the idea of this website is to write about the things that are knowable and observable that sometimes go overlooked. At least, that’s generally the idea. I don’t think anyone who watched a bulk of Diamondbacks games in 2015 would have overlooked how good the team was defensively. It was readily apparent. Every night. And once Trumbo was …
Continue Reading →Yesterday, the third and final installment of the Diamondbacks Top 30 Prospects was released. Dansby Swanson grabbed the top spot ahead of familiar names Aaron Blair and Braden Shipley. Fellow 2015 draftee Alex Young came in fourth and Brandon Drury rounded out the top five. Ranking Young ahead of Drury wasn’t easy, but it came down to the value …
Continue Reading →For all practical purposes, the D-backs are set at catcher in the near term (a/k/a The Contention Window), thanks to the tremendous 2015 contributions of not-quite-full-time catcher Welington Castillo. The team may or may not add Jarrod Saltalamacchia — probably in a role where the proportion of his PAs to innings caught is higher than normal — and while …
Continue Reading →We’ve looked at the bottom of the 2016 Top 30 Prospect List. We’ve seen the middle of it, too. I’ve talked about how I do this and why I do this, so there’s that, too. A ton of names have been dropped, tools talked about and projections detailed. And while none of the aforementioned prospects cracked the forthcoming top 10, …
Continue Reading →The Rule 5 draft: the sexiest of all offseason events. Forget chasing down the biggest big free agents, and the coming litany of minor league deals with non-roster invitations to spring training. The trade market will be interesting, I’ll grant you. But what of Alex Glenn, world? What of the possibility that a franchise-altering catcher could change hands again, …
Continue Reading →2015 was a year of experiments, especially on the pitching side. But as noted last week, next year is not about personnel experiments — it’s about contention, and getting as much as possible out of the staff the team has. As of now, the D-backs haven’t added a starter through free agency or trade good enough to change our …
Continue Reading →Everyone knows the Diamondbacks will be searching for pitching this offseason. That’s because they should be. Above average offense? Check. Above average defense? Check. Even with a few warts, the position players have the situation locked down for the most part. But the pitching staff, and the rotation in particular, is a different story. So it stands to reason that …
Continue Reading →The time has come to rank the top 30 Diamondbacks prospects as we head into 2016. A season that started in March for over a hundred minor league players has wrapped up (except for the handful of guys in the AFL) and there have surely been some big seasons. There have been a few disappointments, too, but that’s the nature …
Continue Reading →It’s important to do a good job. The internet is littered with opinions of every shape and size. At Inside the ‘Zona, we do our best to steer away from that by focusing on the facts – that is, largely the data around baseball. We look for insights, we look for clues and we look for information that can help …
Continue Reading →The day after the season ended, the Diamondbacks parted ways with pitching coach Mike Harkey. Last night, Nick Piecoro reported that former Angels pitching coach Mike Butcher is likely to be hired as Harkey’s replacement, and while the role of a coach is especially hard to analyze with our site’s particular brand of analysis, signs still point to this …
Continue Reading →It’s been an odd career for Aaron Hill, who started his career strong, missed much of 2008, logged an excellent 36 homer, 4 WAR season in 2009, and then saw things get weird. In the season when he joined the D-backs, Hill posted just 8 HR in 571 PA, with a 0.6 WAR — and then followed that with …
Continue Reading →This little piece is about Jeremy Hellickson. Sorry, just kind of didn’t work him into the headline. More specifically, though, it’s about the dilemma about whether tendering Hellickson a contract is a dilemma. The chances that they’ll tender him are pretty close to the “yeah, definitely” range. But should they be?
Hellickson started his career as a baseball conundrum …
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 @ZHBuchanan: Our @Ken_Rosenthal spoke to Ken Kendrick about trading Paul Goldschmidt.
https://t.co/O5fHRlyBxD, 
RT @CardsNation247: We have a good show lined up for tonight. Leading off is our friend of the show @buffa82 followed by Jeff Wiser… https://t.co/eltZC0uvyg, 
RT @juanctoribio: To piggyback off the @ZHBuchanan and @OutfieldGrass24 that the #Rays were involved in the Paul Goldschmidt sweepsta… https://t.co/spg9x7X1L5, 
RT @OJCarrascoTwo: Read this from the world famous, @OutfieldGrass24 https://t.co/cHUie1I5Le, 
RT @TheAthleticAZ: A great source, our @ZHBuchanan and @OutfieldGrass24, for #DBacks info - and MLB Network agrees. https://t.co/QUNql4ol79,
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