Taking the place of Shelby Miller in the rotation, Archie Bradley turned in one of the most dominant outings by a Diamondbacks rotation this season, and thankfully he is here to stay.
Even with Shelby Miller and Rubby De La Rosa in the starting rotation, the Diamondbacks have struggled to get innings out of their starting staff in 2016, one of the main reasons they have underperformed.
This season, the Snakes’ bullpen has already logged 196.2 innings, the most in the majors. This year, D-backs starters are averaging just 5.60 innings per start, and as you can imagine, quality starts have been few and far between.
Now that both De La Rosa and Miller are on the disabled list, the Diamondbacks need innings out of their starters more than ever. Recent week starts by Edwin Escobar and Patrick Corbin haven’t exactly been encouraging.
More from Venom Strikes
- Happy Thanksgiving Diamondbacks Fans! We have lots to be thankful for!
- The perfect holiday gifts for the Arizona Diamondbacks fan
- Diamondbacks make some BIG 40-man roster Moves
- About time! Diamondbacks to now provide housing for Minor League players
- What is the Rule 5 Draft? How does it impact Diamondbacks?
On the other hand, Archie Bradley’s last start against the Padres on Sunday is exactly what this team needed. He allowed just three runs on four hits in 7.1 innings, while striking out nine and walking just one.
Bradley established career highs with innings and strikeouts at the MLB level, and he threw his fastball in the zone 75 percent of the time, consistently getting ahead 0-1 and 0-2 in the count. 70 of his 96 pitches were strikes, and when he did get behind, he came right back with a strike. His big breaking ball was effective ahead and behind in the count generating whiffs.
He was also able to spot his fastball on the concerns and rise his fastball to get swings and misses. He needed only 13.6 pitches per inning, and for the first time he looked like the number one prospect he was deemed to be. Bradley wasn’t throwing that hard either averaging 91-93 with the fastball.
This start is a great model to follow for the rest of the starting staff, especially for Robbie Ray. It proves that success only takes place when your ahead in the count. Everybody can’t wait for Archie’s next start against the Cubs at Wrigley Field today.