Arizona Diamondbacks: 2015 Year in Review

Oct 2, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Rubby De La Rosa (12) drops a rosin bag during the third inning against the Houston Astros at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

What Went Wrong

We feared the starting pitching would be the team’s weak link and we turned out to be correct. No starters reached 190 innings; Rubby De La Rosa led the D-backs at 188 2/3. De La Rosa became the team’s de facto ace, winning 14 games but also compiling a staff-high 4.67 ERA. Josh Collmenter, the team’s best pitcher last year and the Opening Day starter in this one was out of the rotation by mid-June. No other starter besides De La Rosa made 30 starts. Jeremy Hellickson and Chase Anderson made 27 each with both spending time on the disabled list. Robbie Ray ended up with the lowest ERA at 3.53 but also only averaged about 5 1/3 innings per start.

Every time the Snakes had a chance to make a statement at home, they flopped. It started on Opening Day, one of their only national television appearances of the season. They dropped a 5-4 decision to the San Francisco Giants. After that August road sweep of the Cincinnati Reds, Arizona came home to Phoenix and were granted a Monday national TV audience against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Redbirds were victorious by a score of 5-3. This past weekend, two big contests against the Houston Astros resulted in two big losses in front of the whole country. As much as I believe this season was a success, think about how much better I could view it if they finished 41-40 at Chase Field.

Addison Reed‘s demotion from the closer’s role set off a chain reaction in the bullpen, moving Ziegler from his customary setup role to become the stopper. Although pleasant surprises from Chafin and Hudson negated this development to a degree, the bullpen needed to have no hiccups in order to rescue the rotation. Reed was traded in August after a brief stop at Triple A Reno and then a stint in a setup role. Chris Owings regressed significantly hitting only .227 and striking out ridiculously high 144 times in 515 plate appearances.

Next: Final Analysis