Currently viewing the category: "Double Plus"

Happy Memorial Day, folks, and enjoy the weekend. Here at Inside the ‘Zona, we’re getting an early start. The idea was to post some graphics in lieu of a post, and maybe add to that as the mood strikes later today, and over the weekend — I wouldn’t have written any kind of explanation here at all, but I need …

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Unless you were born on an April 29th, the date probably doesn’t have any special significance to you. It’s not a Major Baseball Event. But it is a nice little D-backs milestone, because as others have raised repeatedly — especially Jeff, on The Pool Shot — the team had a borderline cruel schedule for this month, and yet things are …

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Yesterday I had a little fun on Twitter dot com. I decided to run off some very brief, nearly context-free stats. That seemed to resonate pretty well with people because stats are cool and good, plus you’re probably busy and doing things quickly can be a positive sometimes. So here’s an unstructured little check-in on the Diamondbacks. You can call …

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Earlier this spring, Ryan wrote a really fantastic piece about Patrick Corbin and his slider. By association, the piece was also about Patrick Corbin’s changeup. As Corbin put it to MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert, the changeup is a point of emphasis this seasons

“My changeup is probably something I’m trying to get to where I can throw it as much as

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It’s a magical time of year, the time in which mountains are made of molehills, common sense proves evasive and The People generally freak out. The Diamondbacks have sunk below .500 for the first time in 2016 as of this writing (hopefully they’ve “surged” to even in the standing by the time of this reading) and we’re all basically doomed. …

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I’ve used this metaphor before, but I can’t think of a better one. Say 30 people are in a room for a meeting, and in comes a giant plate of sandwiches. Maybe more sandwiches than are needed (35?), but not so many that people aren’t eyeing the buffet to see if they need to make a bold move to get …

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After a spring full of loud performances, Chip Hale has some tough decisions on his plate. The collective group of Jean Segura, Nick Ahmed, Chris Owings, Phil Gosselin and Brandon Drury all hit somewhere on the spectrum between .359 and .517 in Cactus League play. They combined for 25 doubles (10 of which belonged to Mr. Drury), …

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Not long ago, we worked through some research that betrayed a general principle: the more horizontal the movement on a pitch, the more susceptible to large platoon splits it was likely to be. The converse — that when the movement of a pitch was more or mostly horizontal, the bigger the platoon splits — clashed with the D-backs’ sinker …

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By now you’ve heard of the “Shot Heard ‘Round the Desert.” Of course I’m referring to the massive home run hit by OF/1B Peter O’Brien earlier this week. It was massive. In fact, it was more than massive. According to Thesaurus.com, I could have used words like colossal, gargantuan, gigantic, mammoth, towering or even elephantine. I should use elephantine more …

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Nothing went right for Evan Marshall on the baseball field in 2015. You’re probably well aware of the horrific accident that nearly cost him his life – a comebacker that struck the right-hander in the head, fracturing his skull and causing brain bleeding that landed him in the ER without a moment’s notice. Marshall has been on the road to …

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Considering the D-backs’ struggles to build a pitching staff, it’s strange and probably unfortunate that the catchers the team has in camp right now are likely to rate poorly on the defensive side of the ball. At the plate, though, the story could be a lot different. Welington Castillo will undoubtedly lead the way, barring injury; his 17 home runs …

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As Jeff noted last week, seems like Robbie Ray is a favorite around here. As it happens, he also pitched yesterday — the first game in 2016 for which Gameday has PITCHf/x information for the D-backs. As it happens, the data it spit out looks completely impossible. It’s Double Plus — feel like looking at it with me anyway? Sure …

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When the Diamondback acquired Jean Segura from the Brewers, I guarantee no one was worried about how adding Segura to the infield mix was going to affect Phil Gosselin‘s playing time. Since coming over from Atlanta in the Touki Toussaint sale, Gosselin has been mostly an afterthought. There’s a reason for this – he’s entering his age-27 season and …

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Pitchers and catchers and everyone else have reported to Spring Training. The season is drawing nearer all the time (not hyperbole, this is really happening). Arizona’s roster will start to take shape over the next couple of weeks as games start, someone (or two) gets hurt, etc. The team doesn’t appear to be all that close to putting a roster …

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It’s possible that when a new Collective Bargaining Agreement is hashed out this year, we’ll see an increase in the size of the Active Roster — maybe to 28 players, and for good reason. For now, though, the 25-man limit is a very real obstacle. The additions of Zack Greinke and Shelby Miller may go a long way toward …

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Perhaps you missed the big news. One can easily see why. The internet has been full of amazing pictures of catchers squatting, pitchers tossing, position players working out and everyone stretching. So much stretching. But buried in there was a little announcement that Diamondbacks skipper Chip Hale has been extended through the 2017 season. The team held an option for …

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