Goldschmidt, Greinke, Ray represent D-backs in top 50 of ESPN’s MLBRank
Apr 18, 2018, 2:25 PM | Updated: 3:10 pm
Arizona Diamondbacks' Paul Goldschmidt watches his two run home run hit off San Francisco Giants' Andrew Suarez in the fourth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 11, 2018, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
(AP Photo/Ben Margot)
After 16 games, the Arizona Diamondbacks are off to a hot start and their players are being recognized for it.
On Tuesday, Archie Bradley and A.J. Pollock found themselves in the top 100 of ESPN’s MLBRank. The next day first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and pitchers Robbie Ray and Zack Greinke appeared in ESPN’s top 50 of the ranking.
The highest Diamondback on the MLBRank list should be no surprise. Goldschmidt finished No. 11 in the standings and fell a few spots from last year at No. 4 ranking.
Goldschmidt finished third in NL MVP voting last season as he had the 15th most home runs in the MLB (36) and had the fourth most runs (117) and RBIs (120). The first baseman also had a solid batting average of .297.
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The first baseman’s threat isn’t only at the plate though — he’s also a sneaky baserunner. Goldschmidt stole 18 bases last season and was the only player last season to steal at least 15 bases and hit 35 homers.
This year, Goldschmidt has played in all 16 games, hit four home runs, drove in 10 RBIs and has a .232 batting average.
Then, a few spots down, is Arizona’s big time free agent signing from 2015. While Diamondbacks ace Greinke did fall down 10 spots from last year’s ranking, he still had a great season in 2017.
Greinke finished fourth in NL Cy Young voting as he had the 11th most strikeouts in the MLB with 215, the 10th best ERA at 3.20 and the fifth most wins with a total record of 17-7.
In 2017, Greinke had his fifth season with 200 innings pitched, 200 strikeouts and a sub-3.50 ERA. That’s tied with Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw for the third-most seasons with those stats among active pitchers. Only Felix Hernandez (6) and Justin Verlander (7) have more.
This year, Greinke is 1-1 in three starts, has 21 strikeouts and an ERA of 5.29.
The third highest D-back ranked was Ray who jumped up 27 spots to No. 49 from last year’s No. 76 ranking.
Last season, Ray was top-10 on the MLB leaderboards with 219 strikeouts (ninth most) and a 2.89 ERA (fifth most). The pitcher also had a record of 15-5 which was tied for the 13th most wins.
In 2017, Ray joined Randy Johnson (five times) as the only starting pitchers in Diamondbacks history to strike out 30 percent of batters faced and have a sub-3.00 ERA in a single season (minimum 15 starts). Ray also posted the lowest contact rate among qualified pitchers last season (65.6 percent).
This year, Ray is 2-0 in three starts, struck out 23 batters and has a 5.74 ERA.
