Spring Rundown: A Very Rough Spring for the Diamondbacks so Far
By Unknown author
A third of the way through Spring Training and it’s been rough to say the least for the Diamondbacks. After losing both games of a split squad session Wednesday, the Arizona Diamondbacks find themselves at the bottom of the spring standings at 3-9.
How bad is it? Pretty bad. The D-Backs have the worst run differential of any team MLB team (-46) and have the lowest run total of any Cactus
League team. They’re 0-6 on their home field–Salt River Field–and are currently in the midst of a 4 game skid.
It’s not all doom and gloom for the D-Backs as the incumbent outfielders–Chris Young, Gerardo Parra and Justin Upton–are each having a fine spring. Third baseman Ryan Roberts is only hitting .240, but has flashed a bit of power–3 HRs–and leads the team in RBIs. Every other expected regular contributor–including free agent signee Jason Kubel–are struggling. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt is hitting .174 and has yet to collect an RBI, catcher Miguel Montero is hitting .200 with no home runs and 1 RBI and second baseman Aaron Hill has been virtually invisible matching Kubel’s .182 average. The Willie Bloomquist/John McDonald tandom that is expected to hold down shortstop before Stephen Drew comes back from his ankle injury are hitting .240 and .188 respectively.
It’s not much better with the pitching staff. Trevor Bauer has been mostly good and Daniel Hudson has been OK among the starters, however the other four guys have had rough starts to the spring. Trevor Cahill, Joe Saunders and Ian Kennedy boast 9.00, 10.12 and 10.38 ERAs respectively and batters are hitting .409, .500 and .429 against them. Josh Collmenter has perhaps had the worst spring of any regular and could be in danger of losing his rotation spot to Bauer. He has a 13.50 ERA in 2 starts. In the bullpen David Hernandez has been good but Brad Ziegler, JJ Putz, Takashi Saito and Craig Breslow have had springs that range from horrendous to below average.
There is still more than half of the spring left and you’d like to think that based upon the sheer number of players struggling that perhaps they’re working out the hangover from last year division championship, however the D-Backs aren’t even being competitive in spring games. If this trend continues over the next couple weeks there might be reason for concern–but for now lets see if Kirk Gibson and company can get this team playing better baseball before real baseball is here.
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