Arizona delivers a spanking

Phil Gurnee ♦ April 23, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

When I did the Diamondback preview I mentioned that their long-term problem would be the bullpen.

If the Diamondbacks can stay healthy this team might compete all summer if they can do something with the bullpen.

Maybe I should have written that about the Dodger bullpen.  Headed into this weekend the team with the best bullpen according to FanGraph metrics was the Dodgers.  Two games later after allowing thirteen earned runs they have dropped to second. The fact they have only dropped one spot this early in the year is a testament to just how great the bullpen had been before Friday.

There was a tendency for some folk to say that it was no problem for the Dodgers to keep using starters who could barely get fifteen outs because of the success they had last year with that type of Non-Kershaw rotation.

I never thought that was sustainable and the more times through the rotation this weakness will get exposed as middle relief simply gets worn out. The Dodgers can keep using the AAA yo-yo to mitigate this as they did last summer but yo-yo’s don’t last long when in constant use.

The good news last night was the excellent work by the right-hand platoon crew of Hernandez/Taylor/Barnes.  The trio combined to get on base eight times and can’t be blamed for another loss to a left-hand pitcher.

That blame sits clearly on Kenta Maeda who has been horrible so far this year. Jared Weaver is outpitching Kenta Maeda.  It has only been four starts and to early to speculate about removing him from the rotation but with Urias ready it kind sucks for Alex Wood to lose the gig when Kenta has clearly been the worst rotation option so far this year.

Hill threw yesterday. They say he’s looking at throwing a different way to mitigate the blister. The problem with Hill is that he’s only effective when he uses the curve as much as he does. If he can’t use the curve as much or has to change how he throws the curve because of the blister, that silly contract might look sillier a lot sooner than even I expected.