The Ringer: Two months in, the D-backs look ‘completely beatable’
Jun 1, 2018, 11:34 AM
Arizona Diamondbacks' Jake Lamb, right, reacts after striking out next to Oakland Athletics catcher Jonathan Lucroy during the ninth inning of a baseball game in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, May 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
As the Arizona Diamondbacks ready to open a three-game home set Friday against the Miami Marlins, they’ve already seen the best and worst of themselves.
The first month of the year saw the D-backs climb to the top of the National League standings. Arizona closed May out with a 8-19 win-loss mark, a 1-13 stretch included.
That’s put the Diamondbacks a game above .500 (28-27) for the year.
They are representing regression to the mean pretty literally to start June when it comes to The Ringer’s two-month-in MLB power rankings compiled by Michael Baumann.
Since the start of May, A.J. Pollock has fractured his left thumb and Paul Goldschmidt has hit .144/.252/.278, while Robbie Ray joined Taijuan Walker and Shelby Miller on the DL. Sometimes a great team collapses and leaves everyone scratching their heads. This isn’t one of those times: They were great until their best players got hurt and/or stopped hitting, and now they look completely beatable.
Before the season, Baumann believed the D-backs had something going by ranking them No. 8 in his initial power ranking.
RELATED STORIES
Their pitching staff performed well in 2017 with the second-best ERA-plus in MLB, and that was enough to absorb the impact of losing J.D. Martinez’s bat, he said.
So far, the expected pitching staff success defining the success has held up despite Arizona losing Ray (oblique strain) and Walker (UCL).
The returns of Ray, Miller, Pollock and Steven Souza Jr. — whenever they happen — will bump the D-backs back in the right direction.
Considering the number of key players hurt, maybe being just average is closer to a compliment than anything.
