Currently viewing the tag: "Aaron Hill"

Cashing Out Chase Anderson, Literally

On February 1, 2016 By

After signing Zack Greinke and trading for Shelby Miller (albeit with Aaron Blair), the D-backs had more major league starters than they were likely to need; it made sense to move some of that depth for other kinds of talent more likely to help the team in the immediate future. With Nick Ahmed a staple of the ground ball …

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An Early Look at D-backs Bench Options

On December 30, 2015 By

The Diamondbacks had one major need this winter and they’ve filled it about as adequately as possible. Yes, they could still use an impact reliever, but by and large, the work is done. Finding an impact reliever might be difficult-to-futile at this point considering the team probably knows full and well who is and who is not available at this …

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Over the Hill

On October 26, 2015 By

It’s been an odd career for Aaron Hill, who started his career strong, missed much of 2008, logged an excellent 36 homer, 4 WAR season in 2009, and then saw things get weird. In the season when he joined the D-backs, Hill posted just 8 HR in 571 PA, with a 0.6 WAR — and then followed that with …

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D-backs Pitch Type Vulnerabilities

On September 24, 2015 By

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 …

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Four Third/Second Basemen, and Phil Gosselin’s Borrowed Time

On September 8, 2015 By

The promotional offer was good. To move Bronson Arroyo‘s contract, the D-backs sold Touki Toussaint — and yet with Arroyo on the 60-day DL, by rule the Commissioner had to sign off on the trade. Getting another player on a similar timeline in Phil Gosselin made a lot of sense, and kept some eyebrows from raising. While the promotion …

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Raking Jamie Romak Could Fit Into Impending Roster Puzzle

On July 22, 2015 By

Jamie Romak is 29 years old. There, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can marvel together: Romak currently has a .301/.381/.570 line at Triple-A. If it’s OPS you like, that’s a .951 — which ranks him fourth in OPS at the Triple-A level, including both the Pacific Coast League and the International League. Romak isn’t a …

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The Inside the ‘Zona 2015 Midseason Plan

On July 7, 2015 By

This July, the D-backs are less at a crossroads, as they may have been last year, and more at a mountain peak, finally seeing the journey ahead with a high degree of clarity. The team has built for 2016 and 2017, and never at the expense of this season. But as of this writing, twelve efforts to climb back to …

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Aaron Hill Trade Prospects Given Recent Offensive Surge

On May 14, 2015 By

It wasn’t too long ago that Aaron Hill looked like he was untradeable at any price. Through the end of April, Hill had a wRC+ of 20 — he was 80% below league average in creating runs. The weak ground balls that helped make that happen have all but disappeared now — in May, his line drive rate has more …

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Aaron Hill Struggling in New Role

On April 29, 2015 By

Things started slow this year for Aaron Hill, and he was not helped by being subbed in for Jake Lamb against the likes of Clayton Kershaw and Madison Bumgarner. Things only slowed down from there, however, as he now sports a 13 wRC+ (87% below league average at creating runs). That’s a far cry from his career mark …

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Ahmed In, Hill Out: a Positive Change?

On April 7, 2015 By

The news of the Trevor Cahill trade and the insertion Archie Bradley was surely surprising. But the news that Nick Ahmed was going to start over Aaron Hill, shifting Chris Owings to second base, was perhaps even more of a shock. And not a bad shock necessarily as Ahmed had a fantastic spring, but a shock nonetheless. The transition …

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Roundup: D-backs “Moneyball”; Could Hill Get Moved?

On March 30, 2015 By

Doing The Pool Shot podcast is only getting more and more fun, especially with some killer questions on Twitter that were absolutely fascinating to think about. Why is baseball so damned fun that way? All I know is: the season is about to start, and we’re about to have tons more to notice, work through and discuss, both on these …

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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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What Slowed Aaron Hill in 2014?

On February 12, 2015 By

There’s no denying that Aaron Hill is an important piece to the Diamondbacks’ 2015 success. Sure, you could say that to some degree about every player who’ll spend time on the 25-man roster during any season, but Hill is paid to hit and after consecutive season of doing just that, he fell off in a big way in 2014. Like …

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The D-backs Middle Infield

On February 11, 2015 By

It wasn’t too long ago that I was daydreaming about a convoluted plan for playing time in the infield that would have seen Didi Gregorius start at shortstop every day against RHP, with Chris Owings and Aaron Hill each shuttling between two positions. But things have changed.

Obviously, the trade that saw Didi Gregorius sent to the Yankees in return …

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Roundup: Aaron Hill to Third, Jake Lamb to Somewhere

On August 25, 2014 By

Jake Lamb‘s promotion to the bigs was not entirely unexpected, but it wasn’t ever the public plan; after all, Lamb had taken some time to adjust to new levels in the minors in the past, and he had spent a grand total of five games with Triple-A Reno. Despite a home run on Saturday, Lamb hasn’t exactly hit the …

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If You Could Trade One Diamondback…

On July 30, 2014 By

The trade deadline is tomorrow. The Diamondbacks have been sellers since early June. No one is wondering where the Diamondbacks stand in this whole equation. Let’s just start by establishing who’s been traded:

And let’s just follow that …

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