by Jason Franz-
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| MLB |
For Arizona
Diamondbacks fans, last year was not supposed to happen. They were going to be
pretty good, maybe knock on the back door of the wild card, perhaps give America’s
First Baseman Paul Goldschmidt a travel buddy to the All Star game – that was
really it. Then the season started and that team just didn’t want to lose. Of
course, neither did the Dodgers or Rockies, but still they were looking good. I
remember checking the be-all-end-all of weekly team justification, the ESPN
Power Rankings, and seeing that even when the D-Backs held the best record in
the league one month in they couldn’t crack the top 8. It was make believe. It
had to be.
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| AP Photo |
Despite the fact that the Diamondbacks came out on top of that Wild Card
game (which was quite possibly the
greatest game of the year), I’m still not really sure how to approach this
season with this team. And I’m not alone. CBS
Sports says they “should be competitive again” and Fansided’s
Call to the Bullpen says this season “has a chance to be special.” Such confidence
in a team that made the playoffs, had the manager of the year and a finalist
for MVP.
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| MLB |
It's not like the Diamondbacks are the Dodgers who enter the season with just a smidge less confidence than last season (which was enough to choke a white rhino - too soon?) or the Giants who always think they're better than they actually are. Ever since Randy Johnson and Luis Gonzalez were traded away into the sunset, this has been team uncertainty. So where does one
start a preview for such an ambiguous team? We’ve already touched on their bringing back the bullpen cart and some zesty new culinary options. How about this week’s
announcement
of Holiday uniforms? I’m generally unimpressed with the various hats and
jerseys but those socks!
Any season for the
Diamondbacks begins and ends with Paul Goldschmidt. As consistently dominant as
Clayton Kershaw has been on the mound for the Dodgers, Goldschmidt has been his
equal as an everyday position player. He may not have the panache of a Bryce Harper
or Giancarlo Stanton – let’s face it, he comes off bland as hell, just
ask SI – but dude is the Lou Gehrig of today, just minus the disease named
for him. If Goldy can stay healthy and the Diamondbacks brass can pull their
heads out of their butts and remove the distraction of a contract extension
sooner rather than later, he should stand as the cornerstone and come in 3rd
place in MVP voting once again.
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| The Sporting News |
But the real fan
favorite of the Diamondbacks is, of course, Archie Bradley. Up until the Wild
Card game it was mainly because he had a beard. But then he unleashed the very
first post-season triple by a relief pitcher EVER! He even pitched mostly well enough
in the next round against the Dodgers that he has earned a chance at closer. Now
he’s posing for pictures with the likes of Michael Phelps and Devin Booker. Whether
he gets the closer gig or not doesn’t really matter because there will still be
more fans at Chase Field wearing fake beards than Goldschmidt jerseys.
Another lynchpin
for Arizona is Zack Greinke and his humongous contract. Greinke’s already had a
rough spring, apparently throwing
more innings of slow pitch softball in simulated games than actual pitches
to actual players on actual opposing teams.
He’s been ruled out as the Opening Day starter, which really doesn’t matter
that much, but if he misses a chunk of time or spends most of the season at
less than optimum health, the starters are probably sunk as there will not be a
stud to hide behind.
There’s a bunch of
other players wearing D-Backs uniforms, too. We lost a JD Martinez but got a
Steven Souza and a Jarrod Dyson. Jake Lamb could take another step forward to
join Goldy as a bland unknown superstud. Lots of experts will be looking at the
rest of the starters including Robbie Ray, Taijuan Walker and Pat Corbin to see
if they can match past all-star form. And they seem to have a lot of infielders
who do a lot of different things well but not a lot of them together.
Essentially, the
Arizona Diamondbacks have a solid baseball club. They could be pretty darned
good. Or maybe not, I really don’t know. But unless they start about as hot as
they did last year, it could be a long summer testing the swimming pool chlorine and bragging
about how we’re ahead of the Giants and Padres. In the meantime, I want to gift
Torey Lovullo and the Arizona Diamondbacks with this epic tome as special gift
to help them along their path to somewhere.
Oh, and Paul Goldschmidt is awesome.
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