Roundup: Inside the ‘Zona Meetup on Sunday, March 15

On March 9, 2015 By

Let’s lead right off with the important stuff: Jeff and I will be at Zipps Sports Grill next Sunday at noon, the idea being that we will be thirsty before heading over to Scottsdale Stadium for the 3:05 game against the Giants. Jeff picked the meetup locale, so I can neither confirm nor deny that it was chosen because of …

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Base Running Notes for 2015

On March 6, 2015 By

In 2013, the Diamondbacks were among baseball’s worst base running teams. Ranking 26th in the league, the team frittered away more than a win on the bases per FanGraphs’ Base Running statistic (-10.5 BsR); the Baseball Prospectus stat Base Running Runs was even less friendly with its measurement of the D-backs, ranking them 28th at -9.7 BRR. But things turned …

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One Final 2015 D-backs Projection

On March 5, 2015 By

The season kinda already started and that’s good. I mean, the Diamondbacks have beaten a good college team and the Rockies. There’s a joke in there somewhere, I’m just not interested enough in finding it. The team is 2-0, or 1-0, but really they’re 0-0 because Spring Training absolutely doesn’t matter from a wins and losses standpoint. And has …

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Chase Anderson and a New-Found Sinker Reliance

On March 4, 2015 By

Chase Anderson defied expectations last season. After a promising early career in the minors, he put up a scintillating 2012 line at Double-A: a 2.86 ERA in 21 starts, backed by a very good 8.39 K/9 and a borderline excellent 2.16 BB/9. Things looked good. But they did not look good the following year in 88 Triple-A innings (13 starts, …

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An Alternative Answer to Trevor Cahill

On March 3, 2015 By

The saying that “there’s more than one way to skin a cat” always struck me as being spoken in poor taste. First, I’d argue that cats don’t project to taste well (low fat content, gamey, etc.) and, second, that the visual is distracting to whatever analogy the speaker is trying to make. No matter the argument, as soon as you …

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Roundup: To Trade, or Not to Trade; Finding Cahill

On March 2, 2015 By

The D-backs may have quite a few players that they’d like to renegotiate salaries with, but after purging Miguel Montero‘s contract and shuffling some deck chairs in the offseason, there are probably only three contracts that the team wishes it could outright delete right now. I’ll give you a hint; their three 2015 salaries/offseason commitments total about $33M. The …

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The Cause of Trevor Cahill’s Downturn

On February 27, 2015 By

By virtually any metric, it’s hard to look at Trevor Cahill‘s recent performance and conclude that he’s likely to be a good value at his $12M salary for 2015. But that doesn’t mean that he’s not worth more than the $520k the team would be likely to recoup by releasing him. As recently as 2013, Cahill was arguably an …

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D-backs Will Shift More in 2015

On February 26, 2015 By

We’re big proponents of the shift around here. You might have picked that up. Both Ryan and I have discussed shifting and how it pertains to the game at various times. At Beyond the Box Score, I discussed which players in baseball are most and least shiftable and Ryan even went so far as to suggest that teams use a …

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Projecting the Career of Paul Goldschmidt

On February 25, 2015 By

After a season and a half of merely-well-above-average hitting statistics, Paul Goldschmidt posted an elite 2013 season, and matched that same elite pace in an injury-shortened season last year. How long can keep that up? If the D-backs are gearing up to contend for a few years starting in 2017, can Goldschmidt be part of that window? In 2017, Goldy …

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New TV Deal Means Flexibility for D-backs, Eventually

On February 24, 2015 By

News broke late last week that the Diamondbacks had (finally) agreed to terms with FOX Sports Arizona on a new television contract that will drastically change the financial complexion of the organization. This wasn’t unforeseen, obviously. The current contract was set to expire at season’s end and for over a year there had been speculation coming out of Phoenix about …

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Roundup: Mark Trumbo Wins Arb Hearing; Taking Issue with “Commitment” to International Market

On February 23, 2015 By

On Episode 16 of The Pool Shot, we spent much of the first half hour talking through the impact of the news that in the “final offer”-style arbitration in which he filed for $6.9M and the D-backs filed for $5.3M, the three-person panel picked Trumbo’s number. The impact is not colossal, but it’s not good, either. $1.6M is nothing …

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With Evan Marshall’s Stock Set to Rise, Now the Time to Buy

On February 20, 2015 By

You might look at Evan Marshall‘s 9.85 K/9 last season and middle-of-the-road walk rate last season and conclude he was very good, but not elite. But if you did that, you’d be wrong. In a season when the team’s ERA ranked 26th in the majors, any Diamondbacks pitcher who did well deserves a second look — but Marshall should …

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An Observation on the Risk of Power

On February 19, 2015 By

On Tuesday I took a stab at discussing Ender Inciarte within the context of his defensive value. Because his defensive value makes up the bulk of his overall value as a player (since he doesn’t hit a lot), he needs to maintain a high defensive level in order to continue to be a truly valuable asset. That, of course, places …

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Remaking Fireballers: Is Dave Stewart Building the Rotation in His Own Image?

On February 18, 2015 By

It’s been just six months, but the new front office regime of Tony La Russa, Dave Stewart and De Jon Watson has dramatically altered the D-backs depth chart at starting pitcher. With Archie Bradley already on the verge of the majors, the team has added four more pitchers with high ceilings and spotty results: Robbie Ray, Allen Webster…

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On Defensive Value and Ender Inciarte

On February 17, 2015 By

Over the last decade or so, defense has become an increasingly important aspect of baseball. When the Steroid Era slipped away and the old, plodding sluggers capable of hitting 40+ home runs per season all but evaporated from the game, they were often replaced by younger, faster players who could at least help prevent runs even if they weren’t capable …

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Roundup: Addison Reed Settles Arbitration Case; Wave of More Cuban Players

On February 16, 2015 By

When the deadline for clubs and players to exchange arbitration figures finally arrived, the D-backs had just two arb players unsigned: Addison Reed and Mark Trumbo. A couple of weeks ago, I dug in on those arbitration cases and thought that while settling with Trumbo would be reasonable, there were extraordinarily compelling reasons for the club to go to …

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