The gun may have been a little hot on September 1 in Colorado (all five of the D-backs’ top pitches by speed were thrown that day), but that’s when Rubby De La Rosa fired the season’s speedingest bullet. It finished an at bat, after Christian Adames had fouled off five other pitches — and we can only guess how Adames …
Continue Reading →The Arizona Diamondbacks coaching staff and front deserve a strong compliment from how they’ve handled the outfield situation in 2015. We’ve been outspoken about it here and on The Pool Shot. We knew A.J. Pollock had center field locked up, but with David Peralta, Ender Inciarte, Mark Trumbo and Yasmany Tomas in the fold early on, the situation …
Continue Reading →The results are mixed, and yet the D-backs have had plenty of success getting ground balls out of their pitchers. It’s not that they’ve cultivated a ground balls staff through acquisition; it’s more that they’ve changed some of the pitchers they have. With some, like Josh Collmenter, that didn’t work out too well. With others… well, Zack Godley wasn’t …
Continue Reading →Let’s just skip the introductory paragraph. I’m not a fan of beating a dead horse and that’s what all of these starting pitching posts seem like after a while. The starters were 27th in WAR, 21st in ERA, 24th in FIP, 26th in HR/9, 22nd in BB/9 and 18th in K/9. That’s bad and …
Continue Reading →In the first year of collecting exit velocities, we’ve uncovered a few truths. The first and most important, although also the most obvious, is that the old adage of “hit the ball hard and good things will happen” is consistent with the data that’s been recorded. When the ball is blasted to virtually any field, the odds of a good …
Continue Reading →With the way the Diamondbacks have hit the ball in 2015, everyone knows that the pressure will be on the team to improve the pitching staff. That was a concern heading into the 2015 campaign and acquiring Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster and Jeremy Hellickson served as more of a band-aid than a solution. Robbie Ray’s earned …
Continue Reading →There are a lot of comings and goings in baseball; 39 different players have tallied a plate appearance for the D-backs this season. Quite a few more played for the D-backs in spring training. Many are gone. Some, like Gerald Laird, are forgotten. Others are not. With so many players in camp, it’s easy to forget that many can …
Continue Reading →This bizarre game that we love offers a good chance to use statistics because so much happens. Hundreds of plays in the field for most starters, hundreds of trips to the plate. Random things still can and do happen, along with things we can’t or don’t measure as we look at those events. Even more common than events on the …
Continue Reading →Nick Ahmed led off for the Diamondbacks last night. That was a surprise, but given what he’s done against lefties (at times) this year, it wasn’t a total shock. Chris Owings hit second and that was surprise, too. Considering that Owings has managed to be worse against lefties than righties in 2015, showing a neat little reverse platoon split, that …
Continue Reading →671 runs scored through last night puts the D-backs 6th in the majors, but second in the National League (1 run behind the Nationals). With Paul Goldschmidt right at the standard he set for himself at 2013, A.J. Pollock bettering his 2014 performance, and David Peralta in full breakout mode, all it’s taken is solid or better performances from most …
Continue Reading →There’s some funny stuff going on in baseball. That’s more or less always the case, especially in September, but it’s probably worth pointing out nonetheless. The Minnesota Twins might make the playoffs. They weren’t supposed to be good at all but somehow have been. They’re 26th in fWAR for position players and 16th in fWAR for pitchers. They were projected …
Continue Reading →This year, all of the first-round picks in the MLB draft signed with their teams (although one in particular did go down to the wire…). We won’t get a final draft order for the 2016 draft until well after the season ends, since some free agents could cause changes — but things are a little simpler than normal. And while …
Continue Reading →Once upon a time, the Diamondbacks were a relevant baseball team. If it seems like that was a long time ago, it’s because it kind of was. If it seems like that wasn’t a long time ago, it’s because it kind of wasn’t. I don’t really know what that means – it was a middle amount of time ago? The …
Continue Reading →The D-backs staff’s ground ball percentage has tailed off a bit from where it was earlier this season, but it’s still up there — 46.1%, ranked 12th — and that’s still some kind of small shock, considering it entered the season with a staff of fly ball pitchers. A huge part of that is the relentlessness with which they’ve pitched …
Continue Reading →When Yasmany Tomas was signed last winter, I certainly did my best to describe the asset the Diamondbacks had just purchased. But that was a difficult task. Tomas hailed from Cuba and there wasn’t a lot to go on. We had a few scouting reports from international sources, but little video, and even the reports were based on limited viewings. …
Continue Reading →Coming into this season, Rubby De La Rosa was heavily reliant on his four-seam fastball, adding a few sinkers in 2014 but really only using a slider and a change to break up the fastball monotony. Both of those secondary pitches tend to be the kind that you can only get away with throwing about 20% of the time, …
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 @joshuamckerrow: 1. Today I did the annual story on holiday decorations at the Governor's residence. I've done it every year, for ye… https://t.co/s7JnlHM1RO, - This Suns matchup comes at a good time for my hometown Blazers #RipCity https://t.co/fQ45wdfQUk,
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,
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