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Before the season opened, we asked you how the Diamondbacks would fare this year. When we asked our writers the same question, the average came out at 84 wins, and that’s probably not too far away from the wider poll results. Here’s what you told us.
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Technically, the most popular group was a little higher, with the 86-88 box just edging things as the most popular category. However, it beat out 83-85 by only a single percentage point, and it feels like the “tail” below that was more significant than the tail above. 42% went for 82 wins or below, while only 8% went for 89 or more. The four categories outside the 74-91 win range combined for only nine percent of the vote. I’ve got an email into the SB Nation data guy to get the figures there, so I can do some math and come up with an actual average.
However, right now, the Diamondbacks are on pace to go 0-162. That puts them alongside the Giants, Padres and Rockies, who all are also still looking for their first victory of the year. Indeed, at time of writing, San Francisco are still looking to score their first run. So things could definitely be worse. On the other hand, they could also be a lot better. Here are a few knee-jerk over-reactions, after the first couple of games.
- The bullpen is A guys and Z guys. Thompson, Loaisiga, Morillo and Hoffman = six shutout innings on two hits. Ginkel and Clarke = five ER over 1.1 innings. I’ve a feeling Joe Ross will tend towards the latter group, and I’m not optimistic about Paul Sewald.
- Nolan Arenado is toast. 1-for-7 with five strikeouts so far. Sure, the defense is still there, but all the adjustments he spoke about making in the off-season seem to have had little or no impact so far.
- What are our guys doing on the basepaths? Four TOOTBLANs already. The other teams have an average of less than one-half of a TOOTBLAN (total of thirteen between 29). This isn’t aggression, it’s barely-controlled psychopathy.
- It’s going to be a long year if our starters have an ERA of 8.31. While I get that the Dodgers are good, we haven’t seen Eduardo Rodriguez or Michael Soroka yet.
- Alek Thomas looks much better, and Geraldo Perdomo is doing Perdomo things. I’ll be happier when Corbin Carroll starts to hit, but I’m not too worried about that.
Long season, blah blah. We’ll see how it goes!
