Through the first three months of the season the Arizona Diamondbacks are getting it done the old-fashion way.
They’re earning it.
Despite a grocery-sized list of players jumping on and off the disabled list, inconsistency from the starting rotation and seemingly endless issues with the back end of the bullpen somehow, some way the Dbacks continue to lead the National League West.
“The Diamondbacks have something that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet,” ESPN baseball insider Pedro Gomez told Brad Cesmat in a recent interview on ‘Big Guy on Sports.’ “It doesn’t show up in any sabermetric spread sheet and that’s the desire that a lot of those players have from within.”
After finishing 81-81 in 2012 general manager Kevin Towers and manager Kirk Gibson agreed a roster shakeup was needed. The overhaul was punctuated by trading Justin Upton to Atlanta just a few weeks before spring training. One of the players who came back to Arizona was versatile, well-respected infielder Martin Prado. Other veteran pieces like Eric Hinske and Eric Chavez were added to provide quality bench depth, something the Snakes lacked last season.
The team-first lunchpail approach, to this point, has worked well.
“You cannot measure what it inside a player’s body off of a spreadsheet,” Gomez explained to Cesmat. “The Dbacks made a lot of talk of…re-shaping the roster into guys who all want to be pulling in the same direction. Now if the talent is there to hold up over 162 [games], that we don’t know.”
Gomez was quick to point out there is talent on the roster even if the lineup lacks true “star power” like many believed they had in Upton who has cooled down offensively after a torrid start with the Braves.
One of the biggest bright spots to this point has been Arizona’s ability to win on the road. They were also the fifth-best fielding team in baseball entering Tuesday’s series opener against the Washington Nationals.
Eric Sorenson
