Currently viewing the tag: "Josh Collmenter"

Josh Collmenter was born February 7th, weighing in at 10-pounds, 8-ounces. He was the last of my four children, and the only one who didn’t give me any pain when I gave birth to him. That’s how I knew he was a special child.

Okay, so between those three sentences and the title of this post, perhaps …

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We all handle grief in our own ways. For me, the unceremonious trading of Brad Ziegler — as well as news later that he had signaled a willingness to sign an extension, as well as news they didn’t engage him in settlement talks, and as well as news later that other teams were shocked that the Red Sox price …

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The D-backs will roll with just Andrew Chafin as a lefty out of the ‘pen to start the season, with Brad Ziegler, Daniel Hudson, Tyler Clippard, Randall Delgado, Silvino Bracho and Jake Barrett all throwing from the right side. With Josh Collmenter omitted because of a trip to the DL and Enrique Burgos and Evan Marshall

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The D-backs finished last season at 79-83, but actually outscored their opponents 720 to 713. With that positive run differential, we’d expect better record: something in the order of 81-81 or 82-80. The D-backs played better than their record would indicate, and that shortfall of 3 or 4 wins could just be luck. It could also be a matter of …

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A Unique Set of Skills

On February 23, 2016 By

Relief pitchers are weird. Wait, that’s unfair. I’m sure most of them are normal in so far as professional athletes are concerned. But analyzing them is weird. There are so many variables to account for that it’s really difficult to do them justice. Which part of the lineup are they facing? What’s the leverage of the situations they’re placed in?

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As our intern so terribly announced, it’s “Mission Accomplished” now on upgrading the rotation, with Zack Greinke at the front and Shelby Miller replacing someone else. If a lefty fourth outfielder or utility infielder or backup catcher fell in the team’s lap, they’d probably listen — but the team’s attention is now turned to the bullpen. Thing is, toward …

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Earlier this week, we had some fun looking at the best and worst pitches from Diamondbacks starting pitchers in 2015. There were some really good pitches on disply there, even considering the struggles that the staff had last year. This time around we’ll position the microscope on the relievers, but there’s something notable to include here: relief pitchers have …

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The D-backs have a great young team of position players, and the makings of a pitching staff that could be at least solid. With the team on the upswing and organizational memory of .500 seasons in both 2013 and 2014, it’s easy to focus on how high the team can go. That’s important, and maybe the most important thing. Still …

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Why is Josh Collmenter so good? I’m not saying that because he was the starter on Opening Day, and I’m obviously not saying that because of his 5.24 ERA this season as a starter. The man still pitched a near-full-season’s worth of relief innings (52.1), and once again, the results were spectacular: a 1.89 ERA.

What Collmenter has been able …

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This year, all of the first-round picks in the MLB draft signed with their teams (although one in particular did go down to the wire…). We won’t get a final draft order for the 2016 draft until well after the season ends, since some free agents could cause changes — but things are a little simpler than normal. And while …

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Last week in setting a benchmark for wins needed from the rotation, I used a placeholder for wins we could expect from the bullpen: about 2.5 above replacement. It was intended to be conservative, but if this season is any guide, the bullpen could be quite a lot better than catch-all statistics like Wins Above Replacement would indicate. As …

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If you read everything Eno Sarris writes (recommended), you already learned about the Mets and the Dan Warthen slider about 10 days ago (required). If you don’t and/or haven’t, go do that. I’ll still be here when you hopefully get back. And actually, knowing the title of this piece, I’m pretty sure you’ll come back if you do go do …

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The Diamondbacks are not a particularly good team when it comes to pitching. By ERA, they rank 26th in the majors. Since we know that Chase Field punishes pitchers more than almost any other park, that’s probably not the best way to look at them. If we choose a defense-independent, park-adjusted metric, they’re basically the same, ranking 24th

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A funny thing happened at the start of the season: even though the rotation was to be manned by three fly ball pitchers, by the end of April the D-backs staff was fourth in the majors in ground ball percentage at 49.1%. It wasn’t all Brad Ziegler. Archie Bradley was a big part of the sharp change in the …

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Chase Anderson has a 2.82 ERA, thanks in no small part to seven innings of one-hit ball on Friday. He’s had only two blowups this season, a 5 ER, 5.1 inning performance against Colorado at the end of April and the 6 ER stinker he put up in Milwaukee. With Tuffy Gosewisch out for the season, it was Jarrod Saltalamacchia

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Josh Collmenter has gone through some unusual role changes in his five years in the big leagues. He’s not your typical pitcher to have been pitched in a relief role and as a starter; it’s not a matter of wipeout stuff that can’t necessarily be maintained in longer bursts, or a question of bouncing back and forth because he was …

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