Diamondbacks and Giants clash in Free Game of the Day
The Arizona Diamondbacks are not the competitive team many expected them to be following their aggressive offseason. At 38-50, they sit dead last in the National League West, 17 games behind the first-place San Francisco Giants, and there’s no clear fix in sight.
In fact, the Diamondbacks seem resigned to their fate after trading away a key piece to the bullpen late Friday night. General manager Dave Stewart shipped away closer Brad Ziegler to the pitching-needy Boston Red Sox in exchange for minor leaguers Jose Almonte and Luis Alejandro Basabe.
That will leave manager Chip Hale’s bullpen bare when they take on those same first-place Giants in the MLB Free Game of the Day on Yahoo Sports — a game you can stream at Yahoo’s Sports Home, MLB index and video home beginning at 4:05 p.m. ET — but it could also signal some bigger moves to come.
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If Stewart does decide to bail on the season and sell off some trade assets, there’s no shortage of factors that led him in that direction. But we’ve narrowed it down to three big factors that have undoubtedly hampered them the most.
SHELBY MILLER’S STRUGGLES
After shocking baseball and signing Zack Greinke to a massive six-year, $206.5M contract, Arizona parted with outfielder Ender Inciarte, shortstop prospect Dansby Swanson, and pitching prospects Aaron Blair and Gabe Speier, in a trade with the Braves.
The return was right-hander Shelby Miller. The idea was to further bolster its rotation to win right now. As for the results, well, they’ve been dreadful.
In his latest outing, Miller was bombarded for six earned runs in five innings by San Diego. That pushed Miller’s season ERA to 7.14 over 69 1/3, and it has to leave Stewart wondering how his team can proceed with Greinke now on the DL and Miller’s value and confidence sinking with each passing start. Barring a miraculous turnaround, this will go down as the worst trade aimed at impacting the 2016 season.
A.J. POLLOCK’S ABSENCE
When Pollock broke his elbow on April 9, we knew it would cause issues for Arizona’s offense. That has proven to be an understatement, because without Pollock Arizona’s offense is clearly missing a dimension that helped them finish 2015 as the NL’s top scoring team. Now they’re just middle of the pack in terms of runs scored, and their just not nearly as dangerous top-to-bottom without his presence.
To highlight Pollock’s impact, he hit .315/.367/.498 with 20 homers, 39 doubles, 76 RBIs, 111 runs scored and 39 steals. It’s difficult to find that type of production across the board. In addition to being an All-Star offensively, he was also a Gold Glove winner. You simply can’t replace that production, and Arizona is feeling the pain of that reality.
THEY’VE BEEN DREADFUL AT HOME
People aren’t going to show up when you’re only winning one-third of your home games. That was proven on Tuesday, when the D-Backs drew a franchise-low 14,110 fans to Chase Field.
That’s been the unfortunate reality for Arizona this season, as they’re currently an MLB-worst 15-32 at home. Honestly, this has been their biggest issue this season, because they’ve managed to post a respectable 23-18 mark away from Chase Field. It’s not unusual for teams to be better on the road than at home. But it’s very rare teams are this bad at home.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
