AZ Snake Pit 18 hours ago
Diamondbacks tender contracts to Carson Kelly, Caleb Smith and Luke Weaver
Photo by Jennifer Stewart/ The general expectation about this year’s non-tender deadline is that it would see a significantly greater number of players than normal cut loose by their teams. The COVID-19 season completed led to a sharp reduction in revenue for all teams, something which will turn into smaller payrolls for 2021. With guaranteed contracts not going anywhere, one obvious route to saving money is to decline team options and non-tender players under team control. We already saw the team do the former, saying “Thanks, but no thanks” to pitchers Junior...
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AZ Snake Pit 4 hours ago
Snake Bytes 12/3: Change Is In The Wind
Diamondbacks News: Jared Porter favored to be Cub’s new GM “Porter has a bit of a history with Hoyer and Theo Epstein, both with the Cubs and with the Red Sox. Porter’s career began with the Red Sox during their curse-breaking 2004 campaign and he’s earned four rings so far: three in Boston and one in Chicago. He’s held numerous positions in both organizations, though he mostly stayed on the side of player development and scouting in the past. Before the 2017 season, he left the Cubs to become Senior Vice President and Assistant GM in the Diamondbacks...
AZ Snake Pit Dec 2, 2020
Snake Bytes: 12/2 - Non-Tender Deadline
Today is MLB’s non-tender deadline. While many teams, including the Diamondbacks, announced their decisions some time ago, there are still some significant decisions to be announced. Non-Tender Deadline May Force Flurry of Moves While it seems a bit unlikely that today will bring a number of eleventh hour signings, there are indications that both sides in some of these cases are more inclined to get something done than to enter the arbitration process in this oddly unique offseason Arizona’s Top Five Hitting Seasons Here is a look back at the top five hitting seasons in...
AZ Snake Pit Dec 1, 2020
Arizona Diamondbacks December confidence poll
Photo by Matthew Horwood/ Some clearing of the D-backs house over the past month. November results At least some people voted “9” this month. Whether such rabid optimism is justified, I can’t say. It may just be another example showing that if you have a poll, 5% or so will vote for just about anything. But in general, it did appear that people were a little more hopeful. The percentages in the bottom two categories did decrease as well, going down from 40% to 34%, so it wasn’t all just about the lunatic fringe. Here are the numbers from the start of...
AZ Snake Pit Dec 1, 2020
2020 Arizona Diamondbacks Reviews #36: Joel Payamps
Photo by Kiyoshi Mio/Icon Sportswire via No control = no bueno. Rating: 3.30 Age: 26 2020 Stats: 2G, 3.0 IP, 3.00 ERA, 4.86 FIP, 1.667 WHIP 2020 Salary: $575,000 (league minimum), $62,300 earned 2021 Status: designated for assignment on November 20, claimed on waivers by Boston Red Sox Introduction If you talk about prospects that have been off the radar, Joel Payamps is a good example of them. Barely 17 years old, Payamps was an international amateur signing of the Colorado Rockies. He pitched for two years in the DSL and then was assigned to various rookie teams....
AZ Snake Pit Nov 30, 2020
Bauer Units
Trevor Bauer warms up before a game. | Photo by Todd Kirkland/ Which Diamondbacks have the highest Bauer Units? In November 2016 the Bauer Unit was born. Named after Trevor Bauer, it is defined as spin rate divided by pitch velocity. For years, Trevor Bauer experimented to find ways to pitch better. His recent controversial thoughts were about increasing spin rate by a variety of sticky substances. Let’s save that discussion for another time and place. Looking at spin rate did not fully explain why some pitchers had better results. Travis Sawchick best stated...
AZ Snake Pit Nov 30, 2020
2020 Arizona Diamondbacks Reviews #37: Joe Mantiply
Photo by Jason O. Watson/ The inability to get lefties out. Rating: 3.15 Age: 29 2020 Stats: 4G, 2.1 IP, 15.43 ERA, 6.62 FIP, 3.00 WHIP 2020 Salary: $575,000 (league minimum), $24,920 earned 2021 Status: under team control until 2027 Introduction Joe Mantiply has been around in the MLB, a bit, since 2016. That was the year when he made his debut for the Detroit Tigers, the team that picked him out of Virginia Tech in the 27th round of the 2013 MLB amateur draft. In 2016 fangraphs said about the Virginia native that he had “just decent stuff” and the decent stuff...
AZ Snake Pit Nov 30, 2020
Snake Bytes: 11/30 - Farm and Fame
Some reading for when you are done playing with your dogs. Diamondbacks news [MLB Pipeline] Here’s the state of the D-backs’ farm system And for those wondering about the D-backs’ slight dip in MLB Pipeline’s midseason farm rankings, from No. 5 in 2019 to No. 9 in 2020, that can be mostly chalked up to the team having traded away a pair of top 10 prospects (SS Liover Peguero, RHP Brennan Malone) to Pittsburgh in the Marte deal. [Cooperstown tred] Forget Twitter: Curt Schilling is a hall of famer Now with Trump leaving the office, will writers value his baseball...
AZ Snake Pit Nov 29, 2020
2020 Arizona Diamondbacks Reviews #38: Jeremy Beasley
Photo by Justin Edmonds/ It breathed, it threw and it went down. Rating: 3.10 Age: 25 (since November 20) 2020 Stats: 0.1 innings pitched, 16 pitches, 2 hits, 1 strike out 2020 Salary: $575,000 (league minimum) 2021 Status: under team control until 2027 “He has a pulse. We won the trade!”, those were the words that Jim wrote when the Andriese trade was announced on the SnakePit back in January 2020 and the Los Angeles Angels apparently were prepared to give up “something”. That something carried the name Jeremy Beasley. Fangraphs did not include Beasley in...
AZ Snake Pit Nov 28, 2020
2020 Arizona Diamondbacks Reviews #39: Madison Bumgarner
Photo by Ralph Freso/ Maybe we’d have been better off signing Mason Saunders... Rating: 2.95 Age: 31 2020 Stats: 41.2 IP, 47 H, 31 R, 30 ER, 13 HR, 13 BB, 30 SO, 6.48 ERA, 7.18 FIP, -0.3 bWAR 2020 Salary: $6 million (not pro-rated) 2021 Status: second season of five-year contract, will earn $19 million If Madison Bumgarner doesn’t improve going forward, Yasmany Tomas may not be long in owning the record for the worst contract in Diamondbacks history. The five-year, $85 million contract signed by the pitcher in December 2019 got off to the worst possible start,...
AZ Snake Pit Nov 28, 2020
Snake Bytes: 11/28 - The Leftovers
In keeping with the tradition of this holiday weekend, here are some leftover tidbits from the last few days. One Reason for Thankfulness from Each Team 2020 was such a tough season for the Diamondbacks that the writers needed to dig deep on this one, pulling out the well-worn rags-to-riches success story of David Peralta for Arizona. Is the Hall of Fame Leaving Too Many Out? Mike Petriello revisits a deep dive by Dave Cameron from 2013, finding that, seven years on, it is harder than ever to earn enshrinement in Cooperstown. Rethinking the Playoffs While this season’s...
AZ Snake Pit Nov 27, 2020
2020 Arizona Diamondbacks Reviews #40: Artie Lewicki
Photo by Jason O. Watson/ The cycle is complete. Rating: 2.93 Age: 28 2020 Stats: 2G, 3.1 IP, 5.40 ERA, 1.09 FIP, 4.56 xFIP, 2.40 WHIP, 0 bWAR 2020 Salary: $563,500 2021 Status: released and signed 1 year $750,000 guaranteed contract with SK Wyverns of the KBO (South Korea) + $150,000 in incentives Introduction The name Lewicki is a Polish-language name and could refer to “lion” or “left-handed”. It emerged in medieval times as one of the notable families of Prussia. From the 13th century the surname was identified with the great social and economic...
AZ Snake Pit Nov 26, 2020
2020 SnakePit Awards: Performance of the Year nominees
Photo by Christian Petersen/ Time to vote for the best single-game performance of the year. I went with six in the end; decided to reward Jack for making the only real decent case for any other candidates! So we have two starting pitching performance, one relief appearance and three hitting performances, mostly the ones mentioned in the comments as being worthy of consideration. August 16, Eduardo Escobar - 3-for-4, R, HR, three RBI, +69.3% WP Escobar had a rough start to the season, coming into this contest, over 20 games, he was batting .167 with one home-run and a...
AZ Snake Pit Nov 26, 2020
2020 Arizona Diamondbacks Reviews #41: Hector Rondon
Photo by Jason O. Watson/ He was not the closer we were looking for. Rating: 2.88 Age: 33 2020 Stats: 20 IP, 25 H, 18 R, 17 ER, 6 HR, 11 BB, 23 SO, 7.65 ERA, 6.59 FIP, -0.6 bWAR 2020 Salary: $2.5 million (not pro-rated) 2021 Status: option not exercised ($500K buyout), unrestricted free agent At the time he was signed, this seemed to have the potential to be quite a good move for the Diamondbacks. It looked like another case of Mike Hazen picking up a reliever with experience as a closer, without having to pay current closer prices. Rondon had 92 saves over seven...
AZ Snake Pit Nov 25, 2020
2020 Arizona Diamondbacks Reviews #42: Jon Jay
Photo by Denis Poroy/ Has the Sun set on his career ? Rating: 2.80 Age: 35 2020 Stats: 18 G, 57 PA, .160/.211/.240. 21 OPS+, 1 HR, 4 RBI. -0.4 WAR 2020 Salary: $1,500,000 2021 Status: Free Agent Jon Jay, much like the rest of the Diamondbacks, had a year to forget on the field. Brought back for a second stint with the team, he did not get to play much, and when he did, he was not productive. While the aging veteran brings a good clubhouse presence and leadership, and is very active in the community and in charitable activity, it didn’t translate to on field...
