As the Hot Stove seasons truly gets underway, the Diamondbacks are firmly at a crossroads. Over at The Athletic, I’ve written about a few of these topics, such as A.J. Pollock’s QO decision and the team’s long term payroll outlook. Both are ripe for concern. But the minor league side of the ledger remains a concern, too. The D-backs’ …
Continue Reading →The bullpen has been a hot topic here at Inside the ‘Zona this season. It’s an intriguing crop, headlined by a breakout performance from Archie Bradley and The Fernando Rodney Experience. The group has been really good at times and somewhat horrendous at others. That’s part of the fickle nature of bullpens, sure, but the real issue has been …
Continue Reading →My goodness, there are a ton of relief arms in camp this spring. I know, I know. This isn’t exactly unheard of as relievers, especially those not slated for late inning duty, are probably the most fungible assets in the game. They’re also the most volatile. With performances fluctuating wildly and sample sizes small, evaluating relievers is difficult in the …
Continue Reading →How do you know if something is broken? Usually, you give something a go and don’t get the desired effect. Maybe you try again and still get an error. Other times, after a second try, everything works just fine. There always little blips on the radar of life. I mean, we all have to cycle our routers once in a …
Continue Reading →There was a flurry of baseball moves from every organization on Friday. The Diamondbacks are one of those organizations, so they made some moves, too. As is the case this time of year each and every season, the team had significant work to do to their 40-man roster, which we covered a short while back. There were players that …
Continue Reading →The game of Diamondbacks musical chairs continues. I sometimes wonder what song they’re playing when the music is on. Is it light pop music? Maybe White Snake? Perhaps it’s some modern house music to confuse the middle-aged participants? Either way, the music stopped briefly yesterday and several people were left without a chair, notably coaches Mark Grace and Matt Williams…
Continue Reading →Some seasons are forgettable, but the 2016 Diamondbacks season was simply disappointing beyond measure. There’s no use dwelling on it any further and if you’re anything like me, you’ve already shifted your attention to the future. Renewed optimism is in order after the hiring of GM Mike Hazen, and we even took the liberty to offer up some ideas …
Continue Reading →As we noted last week, minor league baseball has been in action for two months now, and with the draft just days away, we’re only a couple weeks out from all affiliates getting under way. There’s enough of a sample for us to finally dig into, enough for us to draw some conclusions about where things stand right now. Right …
Continue Reading →The minor leagues are well under way. Last week we took a look at the high minors and some players who might make an impact. A couple of them have already been called up to the majors as Evan Marshall and Archie Bradley have found themselves in the middle of the fray as the D-backs open up a series in …
Continue Reading →The time has come to rank the top 30 Diamondbacks prospects as we head into 2016. A season that started in March for over a hundred minor league players has wrapped up (except for the handful of guys in the AFL) and there have surely been some big seasons. There have been a few disappointments, too, but that’s the nature …
Continue Reading →The upper minors are a mixed bag. On one hand you have some of the most talented, close-to-the-majors guys in system playing their tails off in AA, trying to get the call. On the other, you have a big crop of major league vets who are toiling at AAA hoping to get one last crack at the big leagues. The …
Continue Reading →Okay, maybe the title is a little misleading. Drafting college relievers is defensible, if for one reason only: you get 40 picks and dammit, one of them is bound to be a college reliever by the odds alone. Another defensible reason might be that they’re a cheap bunch. It’s not that any of them have ever left me with the …
Continue Reading →There’s been a ton of focus on the major league club around here and that’s for a good reason. They’re doing pretty well and certainly have blown those preseason expectations out of the water, plus they’re a pretty damn fun team to watch play baseball. The gears are still grinding in the minors, however, and it’s about time a few …
Continue Reading →On Friday, Ryan and I shared some thoughts on the trade deadline and the Diamondbacks’ and potential deals that ultimately didn’t go down. That’s mostly fine, but it does leave Arizona in a very familiar position: they’re still a team without an “ace.” Now, Patrick Corbin has been nothing but stellar since coming back from Tommy John surgery as we …
Continue Reading →It’s that time of year again, the time when everyone starts to recalibrate their prospect rankings. Several midseason lists have appeared at Baseball Prospectus, Baseball America and other sites. Last week I profiled our Top 30 Prospect List from last winter and provided some updates, noting that some things have changed. There have been some graduations and some disappointing campaigns. …
Continue Reading →With the improved play of the Diamondbacks this year, it’s easy to focus on what’s taking place in the majors. There are a boatload of compelling storylines, like Yasmany Tomas’ transition to the majors, Jake Lamb’s emergence (and Ryan’s subsequent adoration), Archie Bradley’s ups and down, Paul Goldschmidt’s battle with Bryce Harper for NL bragging rights, …
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- 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, Apr 08
- 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, Apr 04
- 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, Apr 04
- 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, Apr 04
- RT @OutfieldGrass24: Patrick Corbin has a WPA of .318 and it's only the fifth inning., Apr 04
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- RT @jrollisonpgh: PODCAST: Is Derek Dietrich really the villain here? Here's some pre-game #Pirates listening for you:… https://t.co/TeUrEn8jxl, 5 hours ago
- Seems like a very poor way to a) treat literally another human, b) help people in trauma, and c) prevent human and… https://t.co/9hXVnwChz0, 7 hours ago
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- RT @MATrueblood: Today @baseballpro, how #Phillies Jake Arrieta (not entirely unlike Clayton Kershaw) is using a tweak to his pitch… https://t.co/AGl0Rd9Q9l, May 31
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