Currently viewing the tag: "Archie Bradley"

The Fickle Nature of Bullpens

On August 25, 2017 By

Things have tightened up a bit lately. Much has been made of the Diamondbacks’ shrinking wild card lead as the Brewers sit just 3.5 games out, the Cardinals are 5 games back and the Marlins just a half game further behind. It’s hard to imagine the Brewers willing their way to the postseason — they’ll likely need some help. The …

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The Diamondbacks’ Bullpen Has Exceeded Expectations (So Far)

On April 18, 2017 By

The Diamondbacks just took two of four from the Dodgers in Los Angeles, which is really like taking two of three because facing Clayton Kershaw shouldn’t count. The D-backs now head to San Diego for a three-game slate with the Padres (as co-leaders of the NL West, nonetheless) at 9-5 for series that feels extremely important. It’s great that the …

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Archie the Destroyer

On April 5, 2017 By

The Diamondbacks won their first game of the season in dramatic fashion. The Diamondbacks lost their second game of the season in dramatic fashion. The definition of drama, as it pertains to game two, includes Gorkys Hernandez driving in four runs (which is a lot for a guy who only had 17 career RBIs in 104 career games before last …

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Sequencing Matters: Which D-backs Pitches are Fooling Hitters?

On March 22, 2017 By

Earlier this week, we took a broad look at some Diamondbacks pitchers who showcase strong pitch tandems and troublesome pitch tandems. The basis of this work is the new data available from Baseball Prospectus which tracks a number of items, including release points, how similar (or dissimilar) two distinct pitches look upon release, and how similar (or dissimilar) two distinct …

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Which D-backs Pitches Work Well Together?

On March 20, 2017 By

There are those times, in my journey to learn about baseball, that I’ve legitimately had my mind blown. Most of them occurred early on, when I learned that saves were made up by some guy in the late 60’s, RBI’s were mostly a function of guys getting on base in front of a hitter, and pitchers don’t have all that …

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2017 Spring Preview: A Wide Open Bullpen

On March 6, 2017 By

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 …

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Archie Bradley, Taijuan Walker, and Four-Seam Fastballs

On February 13, 2017 By

It’s been fun profiling a couple of upcoming spring battles lately. There’s going to be some kind of rotation battle between some young, talented starters, and it’ll be intriguing to see how all of the infield pieces fit together. Avoiding the bullpen has been purposeful to date given the team might not be done adding there (more acquisitions today!), …

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2017 Spring Preview: Starting Pitching Showcases Depth, Questions

On February 6, 2017 By

Pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training in about a week. That’s cool, and plenty of Diamondbacks are already in Scottsdale given the team’s headquarters fall inside the Cactus League boundaries. You don’t need a refresher on how the starting staff fared last year. It was a disaster, and even Robbie Ray‘s bright spot (strikeouts) had it’s own detractors …

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2017 Preview: Pitcher Forecasts

On January 30, 2017 By

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 …

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Raising the Bar for Relievers

On January 3, 2017 By

A new year provides an opportunity for reflection. I was doing a bit of that recently, thumbing through some old episodes of The Pool Shot while being delayed at the airport again. The experience was fun and while I’d like to think we were right more than we were wrong, the episodes help harken back to a time that the …

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So, Who’s Heading to The Bullpen?

On December 28, 2016 By

It’s easy to look at a complex situation and see it as a problem. We do this all the time — some might even call it a habit. When the answer to a question is jumbled and convoluted, we tend to see it through a lens of negativity. The Diamondbacks have too many starting pitchers at the moment. But that’s …

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The D-backs Rotation, Playoff Rotations, and Depth

On October 5, 2016 By

The playoffs started yesterday, and that’s both good and bad. Playoff baseball is fun (good), but with every passing final box score, we’re reminded that the long, cold, dead, baseball-less winter is fast approaching (bad). The Jays beat the Orioles in a game that’ll remain notorious for Buck Showalter neglecting to use Zach Britton, the best reliever in baseball, …

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D-backs Pitching Through the DRA Lens: Our Cleanest Look at Talent

On August 3, 2016 By

One of my favorite debates within the baseball analytics community is how to evaluate pitching. We’ve collectively moved on from ERA since it has some obvious problems. The first is the most glaring: ERA tells most of the story of what happened, not how talented a pitcher is. We don’t really care what happened, we care mostly about how good …

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Sunday Bradley Sunday: Encouraging Start for Archie

On May 30, 2016 By

The game of baseball is in very good hands. With the influx of young talent over the past several years, baseball has been lent an opportunity to turn the chapter from the awkward post-Steroid Era years and entrust the game to an exciting crop of diverse talent. Young phenoms Mike Trout, Manny Machado, Kris Bryant, Bryce Harper…

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Archie Bradley Returns as Originally Advertised

On April 19, 2016 By

Once upon a time, Archie Bradley was a top prospect with two plus or better pitches, a developing change and command issues that seemed to be improving. In June 2013, he rose to become Keith Law’s “best pitching prospect,” ahead of a recently-drafted Mark Appel and hit-or-miss types in Taijuan Walker and Dylan Bundy. Nothing was guaranteed, but with …

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Prospects to Watch in AAA Reno and AA Mobile

On April 11, 2016 By

Only weirdos refresh minor league roster pages every twenty minutes. That officially makes me (and hopefully a couple of others) a weirdo. Minor league rosters started taking shape about a week and half ago and can reveal certain clues about how the team feels about its prospects. Best of all, we get to see which players will be facing new …

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