Grading Diamondbacks’ rotation, bullpen and lineup at quarter mark

The Arizona Diamondbacks just crossed the quarter-mark of the season, doing so with a 20-22 record that feels underwhelming and yet better than their statistics suggest.

Arizona started the year 13-8, looking formidable against what was expected to be a tough early schedule.

The D-backs went through a two-week stretch of horrid starting pitching before the rotation turned its fortunes around. The offense is in the midst of a slump with top hitters Ketel Marte, Corbin Carroll, Geraldo Perdomo, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Gabriel Moreno all batting below the Mendoza Line (.200) in May.

On the latest Ain’t No Fang podcast, hosts Alex Weiner and Dave Burns grade the club’s rotation, bullpen, offense and defense so far:

Diamondbacks quarter-mark grades

Starting rotation

Alex Weiner: B-

Dave Burns: C, thought about it, B-

Two-fifths of the starting rotation has been excellent this year, and unpredictably it has been newcomer Michael Soroka and the resurgent Eduardo Rodriguez.  Soroka has allowed two runs or fewer in six of his eight starts. Rodriguez nearly threw a complete game last weekend against the New York Mets, lowering his ERA to 2.25.

Ryne Nelson has seemingly turned a corner after a few hiccups early in the season with a 2.33 ERA in three May appearances, while Merrill Kelly is coming off his best start of the year in what he hopes to be a launching pad. Zac Gallen has been grinding with a 5.02 ERA, as the D-backs have lost his last four starts.

The team starting pitcher ERA entering Friday was 4.70, 24th in the league. Before Nelson’s eight-run start on April 19, it was 3.40, and over the last nine games, the ERA is 2.73.

That two-week stretch, which caused manager Torey Lovullo to call his starters out in his office, knocks the numbers way back, but for six of eight weeks, the starting rotation has been passable to very good.

Bullpen

Alex Weiner: B+

Dave Burns: A-

The bullpen ERA is also pretty lackluster at 4.38, 21st in baseball.

Joe Ross, Taylor Rashi, Andrew Hoffmann and catcher James McCann account for 38% of the earned runs the bullpen has allowed (27 in 23 innings), and none of them are on the active roster except McCann.

Six of the eight relievers in the bullpen have ERAs under 3.72, excluding long man and starter-in-waiting Brandon Pfaadt and closer Paul Sewald, who blew his first save on Wednesday after starting 9-for-9.

That’s a positive outcome when looking at the uncertainties of this group while A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez work their ways back. Bullpens are volatile, so the D-backs will have to get better production from other areas to sustain their competitiveness, especially the offense.

Lineup

Alex Weiner: D

Dave Burns: D

This grade would be worse had Ildemaro Vargas not shocked the baseball world by winning National League Player of the Month. Jose Fernandez’s heroics over the first month of the year and Nolan Arenado’s recent surge have been positive stories for this group as well, but there have been some glaring shortcomings.

The top trio of Marte, Carroll and Perdomo simply have to be much better in order for this team to survive.

Since April 23:

Marte: .197/.243/.333
Carroll: .210/.333/.371
Perdomo: .161/.299/.268

There are team-wide issues with chasing pitches out of the strike zone and not working walks, but the bottom line is that the top of the order has to improve.

“We’re going to go as far as Ketel, Perdomo and Corbin take us,” Lovullo told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Friday.

The D-backs just called up top prospect Ryan Waldschmidt, so the book is out on what he can add to this group early in his career.

Defense

Alex Weiner: B

Dave Burns: B

Advanced metrics really like the Diamondbacks’ defense. They rank eighth with 15 defensive runs saved and sixth with eight outs above average. But it has not been perfect despite the club’s hyper-focus on improving the defense over the offseason and spring training.

There have been some untimely mistakes, such as Perdomo slipping on Tuesday to extend a fifth inning in Texas that led to three extra runs. The D-backs have hardly made any throwing errors, but they have committed 14 fielding errors, fifth most in the league, per FanGraphs.

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