Recent news surrounding the Diamondbacks and state of Arizona baseball
Multiple call-ups and roster transactions have occurred in the past week. We bid adieu to Asdrubal Cabrera after the Diamondbacks placed him on waivers to allow him the chance to play with a contending team. That wish was granted as the Cinncinati Reds claimed him. They are in the race for the second Wild Card spot with the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals.
Asdrubal hit .244, .324, .392, 7 HRs, 21 doubles, and 40 RBIs, with 33 walks to 73 K’s. We will miss you Asdrubal but best of luck!
To replace him, the Diamondbacks called up top-30 prospect Jake McCarthy. He’s the 4th player to be selected by GM Mike Hazen in the top 3 rounds of a draft and make it to the MLB. He was the team’s 1st round pick back in 2018.
He played through two levels this year, Double-AA Amarillo and Triple-AAA Reno. He put up a solid stat-line of .253, .332, .499, and 14 doubles, 11 triples, 15 HRs, 54 RBIs, 37 walks, and 95 K’s, and 29 stolen bases. He can play any outfield position, is super-fast, and has solid gap-to-gap power.
Another roster move that occurred was the Diamondbacks recalling Andrew Young and Sean Poppen from Triple-AAA and optioni8ng Humberto Mejia to Triple-AAA while releasing Bryan Holaday.
Andrew Young, originally acquired in the Paul Goldschmidt trade, has been shuffled up and down between the Dbacks and Reno. Andrew Young has had a solid season in a part-time role. With Cabrera off the roster, the infielder should see more playing time. This will allow him to build those at-bats and give the team a sense of what he can bring to the table.
His stat-line in the MLB this year is .230, .324, .574, 3 doubles, 6 HR’s, 14 RBI’s, 4 walks, 33 K’s, and a 137 OPS+. He needs to work on curtailing his strikeouts but the power is real.
Meanwhile, the player he is replacing, Bryan Holaday was with the MLB club for only a short time. He only appeared in 13 games and hit a rather meager .194, .265. .258, with 2 doubles, 1 RBI, and 15K’s. It’s not surprising to see the Dbacks cut the veteran player to allow Daulton Varsho to play more. They want the young guys to play more and more.
Sean Poppen comes up to replace Humberto Mejia who had started two games for the team. He had 2 good starts with the team and will head back to Triple-AAA to finish the regular season. Sean Poppen has been shuttled up and down since being claimed off waivers. He’s only here for a short time until the Dbacks need another starter to replace Mejia.
Pac-12 to Arizona?
Also, the Pac-12 Tournament is coming to Scottsdale in 2022. It will be played at the Giants’ Spring Training stadium- Scottsdale Stadium. It will consist of 5 days worth of tourney play among the top 8 teams in the Pac-12. The agreement runs for multiple years. This is awesome news for the valley and college sports fans. It’s going to be like a mini Pac-12 world series. Thankful that baseball keeps coming to us and we don’t have to travel away for it.
Have you heard the new PAC-12 Tournament is coming to Scottsdale in May 2022? We've partnered with the @Pac12 and The Arizona Sports & Entertainment Commission to create a conference championship event for men's baseball at Scottsdale Stadium: https://t.co/hZSU0xLI2m ?⚾️ pic.twitter.com/vauJG74ZSc
— City of Scottsdale (@scottsdaleazgov) August 28, 2021
Old Friend news
Starling Marte, the former Diamondbacks center-fielder has set an MLB record this year. He’s the first MLB player to steal 20+ bases in both leagues in ONE season. He stole 22 bases with the Miami Marlins this season before he was traded at the Trade Deadline to the Oakland Athletics. In not even a month since the trade, he has stolen 20 bases. Quite an impressive feat! Let’s go Starling!
As always,
May the Force be with You…