The 2015 minor league season is now fully under way. I say that because every affiliate is now playing games for the Arizona Diamondbacks – all eight of them. Full season Kane County, High-A Visalia, Double-A Mobile and Triple-A Reno have been in action since April, but the rookie and complex teams have just begun their seasons, too. The DSL …
Continue Reading →Call it whatever you like, but it’s not easy being a D-backs starter lately. Allen Webster followed up a strong debut with 9 ER in his next 9.2 innings, and Jeremy Hellickson, Rubby De La Rosa and Chase Anderson sport ERAs of 5.45, 5.35 and 5.35 in the last month, respectively. Through all the murk, though, Robbie Ray stands …
Continue Reading →Dear Commissioner Manfred,
Right off the bat: I’m not asking for you to act with respect to the Diamondbacks’ trade of Touki Toussaint with Bronson Arroyo to the Braves for Philip Gosselin. I understand that your office has already approved it, and its impact is not great. Nonetheless, it’s not often that we perform the exercise of asking whether …
Continue Reading →The biggest news in quite some time was Saturday’s deal with the Braves in which the Diamondbacks shipped away Bronson Arroyo‘s remaining dollars to the Atlanta Braves for infielder Phil Gosselin. Of course, to get Atlanta to swallow Arroyo’s money, the D-backs threw in 2014 top draft pick Touki Toussaint, which drew a ton of criticism across the …
Continue Reading →If you look at ERA, Rubby De La Rosa has been pretty bad. That’s usually what we think anyways when we see an ERA hovering around five. And if that’s of concern to you, perhaps you’ve also asked yourself why he’s even still in the rotation. Survivorship is a big part of it – he hasn’t missed a start – …
Continue Reading →Money. It makes the world go ’round. But not all dollars are equal — we’ve seen some baseball teams with top payrolls spend extra when not restricted, like paying a posting fee for Daisuke Matsuzaka or Masahiro Tanaka because it’s not money that could impact luxury tax, like ignoring the old slot system for the Rule 4 draft before the …
Continue Reading →Well, no one saw that coming. Saturday evening, while the Diamondbacks were taking part in their arduous journey to reach .500, they completed a trade with the Braves, sending Bronson Arroyo and Touki Toussaint to Atlanta for infielder Phil Gosselin. The idea was obviously to clear the remaining salary owed to Arroyo, which at this juncture was somewhere between …
Continue Reading →With a .225/.307/.320 slash line through 201 PA, Nick Ahmed‘s major league resume doesn’t exactly scream “franchise cornerstone.” The fact that he didn’t get the starting shortstop role until after his 25th birthday sends more or less the same message. Ahmed has been a Guy at least since his inclusion in the trade that sent Justin Upton to Atlanta, …
Continue Reading →When this season began, the Arizona Diamondbacks were an afterthought for most of baseball. Several major publications picked them to be the worst team in their division despite a very obvious purple sinkhole in Denver. On The Pool Shot, we made some predictions and I went with something like 72 wins while Ryan went with 78. He looks smarter …
Continue Reading →A funny thing happened at the start of the season: even though the rotation was to be manned by three fly ball pitchers, by the end of April the D-backs staff was fourth in the majors in ground ball percentage at 49.1%. It wasn’t all Brad Ziegler. Archie Bradley was a big part of the sharp change in the …
Continue Reading →By now you’re well-aware that A.J. Pollock is really good. He was, after all, as second round draft pick, so it’s not like there was no way to see this coming. 17th overall picks are occasionally good baseball players, especially when compared to later picks. He’s always had tools, even since his college days. He was destined to stick in …
Continue Reading →Chase Anderson has a 2.82 ERA, thanks in no small part to seven innings of one-hit ball on Friday. He’s had only two blowups this season, a 5 ER, 5.1 inning performance against Colorado at the end of April and the 6 ER stinker he put up in Milwaukee. With Tuffy Gosewisch out for the season, it was Jarrod Saltalamacchia…
Continue Reading →Trades are the best. Sure, it’s cool when your team inks a superstar, but trades offer so much more complexity than most contracts can offer that they provide a boatload more intrigue. And intrigue is something that always good, but trades aren’t, mostly because one of the two parties usually “wins” the trade in the end by obtaining more value …
Continue Reading →Day one of the Diamondbacks’ draft went about as well as you could expect. Selecting Dansby Swanson first overall was perhaps an easy choice in a weak draft, and he’ll probably slot somewhere in the D-backs’ top three prospects once he signs. Left-hander Alex Young is a polished starter with clean mechanics who should move quickly through the minors although …
Continue Reading →You know the story: in 2012, Paul Goldschmidt was quite good. In 2013, he made The Leap into the MVP discussion on the back of a 36 HR, .302/.401/.551 season, finishing with a wRC+ of 156. He was almost exactly as great in a Frieri-shortened 155 wRC+ campaign last year, and since coming back this spring, he’s taken it to …
Continue Reading →The first day of the MLB First-Year Player Draft is in the books. In a year in which two strange things occurred – the Diamondbacks having the first overall pick and the draft being incredibly weak – Arizona was in a prime spot to capitalize as best as possible. The Diamondbacks were able to select two players through two full …
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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- Old friend alert https://t.co/xwSHU0F8Hn,
- Every once in a while you get a beer that's just a little off... Usually happens to me at airports.,
- If Pollock doesn’t sign with a team that wears red uniforms I’m going to be really disappointed. Working theory: Se… https://t.co/zHn9DqzEiD,
- The work here by @Britt_Ghiroli is splendid https://t.co/c8tSq0vw3T,
RT @TheAthleticAZ: Plenty of #Dbacks fans gave it some time - and they still don't like the idea. The "why" from @ZHBuchanan
https://t.co/9oDlvue3fV,
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