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You should be keeping an eye on the Diamondbacks this year
Sunday’s Say Hey, Baseball takes a look at the surprising Diamondbacks, an extremely hard-hit homer from Aaron Judge, and pettiness on the Beltway.
Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images
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Earlier this week, we implored you to start paying attention to the Colorado Rockies. All the reasons you need to do so are in that article. But there’s another team in the NL West that you need to start paying attention to. In fact, the entire National League only has five teams with a winning record right now - three of them are in the NL West, and one of those teams just happens to be the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The D-Backs had a small moment of national relevance when Sen. John McCain used them as an excuse for his incoherent moment on Capitol Hill this past Thursday. But the senator actually has good reason to be staying up late to keep up with them. Arizona has 38 wins in mid-June when it took them until July 5 of last year to reach that number. Unless they go into a major swoon during the dog days of summer, they’re more than likely going to finish far ahead of the 69 wins they posted last season.
Naturally, you’d look toward Paul Goldschmidt and production as a big reason why the Diamondbacks are currently where they are right now (and you’d be right to do so), but they’re also getting solid production from the trio of Jake Lamb, Chris Owings, and David Peralta. Plus, it helps that Zack Greinke has been pitching well. Robbie Ray has been keeping up with Greinke, the duo of Zack Godley and Taijuan Walker has nicely rounded out the rotation, and Archie Bradley has shined in the bullpen.
Arizona may not be at the top of the NL West, but there’s still a chance that a certain fan in Washington D.C. and the rest of the fan base in the desert will have good reason to pay attention to them for an extended period of time this summer.
- There’s no question that Nolan Ryan is one of the greatest pitchers to ever take the mound. But is he the best ever? Beyond the Box Score makes the argument in favor of the legendary flamethrower.
- It was a throwback day at Tropicana Field, and the Rays ball boy down the third base line gave us a vintage defensive performance that even impressed the Oakland A’s bullpen.
- The Nationals and Orioles -- or specifically, Mike Rizzo and Buck Showalter -- are finally acting like rivals!
- One day after a 15-inning game, the NCAA Super Regionals gave us a seven-hour contest that ended with Florida celebrating a walk-off all the way into center field.
- In other Super Regional action, Sam Houston State completed one of the smoothest triple plays that you’ll see at any level.
- The Yankees won yet again on Saturday, and this one included Aaron Judge hitting the hardest homer in the Statcast era.
- Saturday was a good day for Mets returning from injury -- Yoenis Cespedes hit a grand slam, and Steven Matz shut down the Braves in his return to the mound.
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