Towers and Cahill Decline in Unison

On April 15, 2014 By

Trevor Cahill was relegated to the bullpen yesterday, with Michael Bolsinger set to take his spot in the rotation. His last start was the tipping point in what has been a gradual decline since he first arrived in Arizona. There is no doubt that he has been bad in his four starts, but he’s been the victim of bad luck …

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Roundup: Collmenter Switch; Delgado Playing Up in Pen; Randy Wolf Signed

On April 14, 2014 By

After some investigation, I believe the D-backs are now the first team to have been in sole possession of worst record in the majors for a season’s first ten games. It’s not altogether unusual for a team to be in sole possession of worst after one game — frequently, one game is played on Sunday before other teams play on …

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The Collmenter Conundrum: Underutilized as Reliever, Overutilized as Full Starter

On April 11, 2014 By

On Wednesday, Josh Collmenter had his longest outing of the season to date: four full innings, four strikeouts, and just three hits and one walk. Good, right? But that doesn’t mean he should be moved to the starting rotation, at least not as a normal starter. We’ve learned some lessons from Collmenter’s 35 career starts that stand for that proposition.…

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Velocity Report: D-backs Pitchers Examined

On April 10, 2014 By

It’s early in the season, but we can only tell ourselves this for so long. Eventually, even knowing that there are 150 more games to play becomes discomforting. Obviously, the team as a whole hasn’t been playing well and if you’ve seen and if you’ve seen any D-backs baseball lately, you’re likely all too familiar with this. With that said, …

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Baseball’s Best Hitter, For Now

On April 9, 2014 By

Kevin Towers couldn’t have imagined that Mark Trumbo would start his D-backs days like this. The hottest hitter in the game has done a lot of swinging and not a lot of missing thus far. His five home runs are tops in baseball and through just nine games he’s already amassed 0.6 WAR, accounting for essentially 25% of his pre-season …

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J.J. Putz and Declining Fastball Velocity

On April 8, 2014 By

So far, the Diamondbacks have only brought J.J. Putz into games they have been losing. This seems strange for a man with 189 saves, but the problem is that, in his age-37 season, his velocity has declined. The worries started last April, when he blew four saves. Then he got hurt and missed almost two months. When Putz returned from …

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Roundup: Anatomy of Mark Trumbo’s Home Runs

On April 7, 2014 By

Every baseball fan’s guide to the galaxy: don’t panic based on one week’s worth of games. Despite being in the wake of two losses Down Under, the 2-5 week has no greater an impact on the season in early April than it would in the middle of June. That said, where the D-backs now sit is the opposite of the …

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Handicapping the NL West Race: Beware the Giants

On April 4, 2014 By

We get it: the Dodgers are pretty good, and probably good enough to withstand key injuries. But take a look at projected standings from FanGraphs or the Experts Panel from ESPN, and the D-backs’ chances of beating the other three NL West teams may not be so rosy.

Here are the projected standings from FanGraphs, which use a combination of …

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Gerardo Parra Breaking the Mold in Right Field

On April 3, 2014 By

Gerardo Parra is doing something we haven’t quite seen before: play elite right field while trailing league-average offense for that position. That’s a big reason why it took Parra until his fifth full season to finally cross the 500 PA threshold. But when he did, with 663 PA in 2013, the results were devastating: 4.5 Wins Above Replacement, good for …

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2014 D-backs Minor League Preview

On April 2, 2014 By

Opening Day is always exciting at Chase Field, but the Diamondbacks aren’t the only team we care about that’s getting their season underway. Minor league affiliates across America are kicking off their seasons and since their rosters are comprised of the big leaguers of the future, they deserve some attention. As you’ve likely noticed, we like to keep track …

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Brandon McCarthy’s New Repertoire

On April 1, 2014 By

Last night Brandon McCarthy started the home opener for the Diamondbacks. He pitched six and two-thirds innings, giving up six hits and five earned runs. Not the result he hoped for, but there were interesting changes I want to note. One start is too small of a sample size to draw any statistical conclusions, but we can see a change …

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Roundup: Some Bold Predictions for the 2014 D-backs

On March 31, 2014 By

It’s finally here: opening day for the D-backs in Arizona. Remember: just 80 regular season games at Chase this season, so each one is all the more precious! I normally include some small analysis tidbits in this roundup space that don’t warrant their own posts, but today, I offer a bit of a departure: some of my own predictions for …

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Breaking Down the D-backs Schedule: Strike Early

On March 28, 2014 By

Gone is the offseason, and gone is last weekend’s series in Australia. In their first game back on Wednesday, the D-backs lit up the Cubs like a pinball machine with a ridiculous 20 hits. Yesterday, the team didn’t look so hot, but we’ll let that slide. It’s time for a couple of tune ups at Chase, a day off, and …

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Speaking of Defense In Left Field…

On March 27, 2014 By

You’ve heard it all winter long: the Diamondbacks thrive on good defense. Gerardo Parra was simply incredible in right field last year en route to his second Gold Glove. Paul Goldschmidt, never one to be left out, earned one of his own at first base. A.J. Pollock was stellar in center, Gregorius was solid at short, Prado was just fine …

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Wade Miley, Strikeout Pitcher

On March 26, 2014 By

Losing the opening game of the 2014 season in front of a international audience wasn’t what any of us wanted. The Dodgers winning the opening game of the 2014 season is a close second. I’m just going to say it now so I don’t have to later: I can’t stand those guys. Moving on, perhaps the thing that we should …

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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

On March 25, 2014 By

The Diamondbacks lost their first two regular season games. The Dodgers won in convincing fashion. Clayton Kershaw was the story in Game 1, giving up only one run in nearly seven innings of work. Game 2 featured an implosion by Trevor Cahill – he gave up eight hits and four walks in four plus innings. These games are especially discouraging …

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