Stocked with top draft picks Isan Diaz (2nd round, 2014), Marcus Wilson (2nd round, 2014) and top international prospect Jose Herrera ($1.06M, 2013), the AZL D-backs fought their way to an above-.500 record in the Arizona Rookie League. Not everyone lived up to expectations, but some exceeded them and others scuffled. As has been the case in previous …
Continue Reading →It’s been a very eventful last few days, with news of the hirings of Dave Stewart and De Jon Watson leaking Thursday, their first press conference Friday, Kirk Gibson getting fired shortly before that press conference, the Diamondbacks locking up next year’s #1 overall pick… and despite the playoffs, plenty of people were paying attention to Arizona.
But first, a …
Continue Reading →Last offseason, Arizona’s former general manager talked about how the team needed a slugger. The team subsequently traded for Mark Trumbo. Well, year one of the Mark Trumbo era was a failure from both an individual and team perspective. We all know about the D-backs’ struggles by now, and Trumbo, playing in only 87 games due to injury, produced …
Continue Reading →With the hirings of Dave Stewart as Vice President and General Manager and De Jon Watson as Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations, the Arizona Diamondbacks haven’t just replaced Kevin Towers. Instead, if the new front office by committee approach ultimately works, they may have just created an alternative to the traditional front office set-up. Owner Ken Kendrick installed Tony …
Continue Reading →Call me crazy, but at the time that Arizona brought Cody Ross to the desert on a three-year, $26M deal, I thought it was a smart move for the club. I still do, as it’s only with the benefit of hindsight that the deal looks bad now. It doesn’t help that the deal was somewhat backloaded, but I believe it’s …
Continue Reading →With a record of 42-28, the Dominican Summer League (DSL) D-backs had a nice season. Top prospects Francis Martinez, Oswaldo Garcia and Luis Madero had varying degrees of success. While the DSL is broken up into several division and is host to 36 teams, there isn’t a ton of travel and teams face one another fairly often, distorting statistics, …
Continue Reading →D-backs hitters had themselves a day last night, and Jake Lamb was in the thick of it with a two hit performance. In fact, in the last thirty days, Lamb is second on the team in terms of creating runs with a wRC+ of 108. Only A.J. Pollock has bested Lamb by that metric, although with a .250 batting average, …
Continue Reading →The D-backs have lost six straight games, and that’s not even their longest losing streak this month. But the ugly four-game set in Colorado had a silver lining: the team leapfrogged the Rockies in the race to the bottom, and now lead in the sweepstakes for the first overall draft pick. Going into Thursday’s opener at Coors Field, the D-backs …
Continue Reading →The Diamondbacks’ starting rotation has the third-worst FIP in the National League. If you’ve been watching this season, you’re probably not surprised by this statistic. The starting rotation is sporting a 4.41 ERA collectively. Surely, it needs to be better than that in order for the team to regain relevance. It seems like drastic changes are needed.
Yet, by looking …
Continue Reading →Just over one year ago, a struggling Tony Sipp left the D-backs with no real left-handed option in the bullpen, prompting a trade for Joe Thatcher. Now, even with Thatcher gone, the D-backs appear to have several. It’s far from a sure thing that the D-backs will carry two lefties in their 2015 Opening Day bullpen, and unless the …
Continue Reading →On Monday, the Diamondbacks beat the Giants 6-2 at Chase Field. The game was rare not just in that the D-backs won, but that it featured the top two pitch framing pitcher-catcher batteries in MLB this season. Using at least 1,000 “pitch framing chances” as defined by Baseball Prospectus, the tandem of Ryan Vogelsong and Buster Posey is tops in …
Continue Reading →It’s early in the process of free agency. So early, in fact, that nothing concrete can really be done yet as the playoffs haven’t even started. Speculation is always in season, however, and now’s just as good a time as any to discuss who the Diamondbacks might pursue in free agency this winter.
Now, I’m not a fan of throwing …
Continue Reading →As the first installment of the Inside the ‘Zona Minor League Seasons in Review feature, let’s take a look at the Missoula Osprey of the rookie level Pioneer League. As you’ll see below, the team had some ups and downs, but also had some notable prospects, including Touki Toussaint, Justin Williams, Sergio Alcantara and others. Here’s a …
Continue Reading →With the minor league season officially ending yesterday (albeit with a Diamondbacks affiliate on the losing end of a championship-deciding game five), Inside the ‘Zona will be taking an in-depth look at each of the organization’s seven minor league affiliates. Through this process, we’ll discuss each team’s season, uncover the top prospects on each squad and showcase the notable performances …
Continue Reading →Last Wednesday, Nick Piecoro posted an excellent, excellent piece on where the D-backs are headed in terms of incorporating analytics into their baseball operations department. And as much as we’d like to reserve judgment on where the club is headed in building its new front office, it may be that the writing is already on the wall.
From Piecoro’s piece:…
Continue Reading →When (former!) GM Kevin Towers moved struggling starter Ian Kennedy before the trade deadline in 2013, he obtained a player that filled a need in a contending team’s bullpen: Joe Thatcher. But Matt Stites also came over in the trade to Arizona to even out the value in the trade, and so far, his 6.11 ERA in 28 innings …
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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- Relevant given that the #Dbacks have a ton of arb-eligible players as the deadline approaches. They did settle with… https://t.co/7b3yWdZtg2,
RT @jareddiamond: A word about Jed Lowrie: Successful baseball teams don't worry about positional "fit" nearly as much as you might t… https://t.co/fmdwdJx9PP, - A little bit of clarity around a confusing situation in Atlanta. https://t.co/5V4vDS8cxr,
- John Ryan Murphy is a fantastic receiver. Carrying three catchers is problematic, but I'd think the #Dbacks see him… https://t.co/AaLa6lKBql,
- My favorite feeling is filing an article and being able to close the 15 associated tabs I have open in Chrome,
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