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We’ve now had the chance to see every starting pitcher take the mound for the Arizona Diamondbacks – twice, in the case of Zac Gallen. The results have been somewhat mixed. On Opening Day, Gallen was undone by the prototypical “one bad inning,” but rebounded yesterday against Detroit,
with six shutout frames. Ryne Nelson and Brandon Pfaadt also caught a severe case of OBI-itis. But Eduardo Rodriguez and, even more of a surprise, Michael Soroka (top) were both excellent. Soroka’s outing was, arguably, the best ever by any starting pitcher making their debut in a D-backs uniform. Did not see that coming.
The team should get Merrill Kelly back shortly, and it’s then going to be an interesting decision as to who gets booted to work long relief out of the bullpen. While Soroka would have been the man in that role, if Kelly was healthy for his planned Opening Day start, his dominant first outing throws that into some doubt. Pfaadt is probably the one on the shortest leash immediately, but we will certainly have another turn around the rotation before anything has to be decided. Kelly could be activated as early as next Wednesday, but that’ll depend on how he gets through his rehab start with Reno on Friday .
Further down the pipe, we will be getting theoretical staff ace, Corbin Burnes back. If he returns to the form he showed before getting injured last year, that will certainly be a significant boost to the rotation. All told, there are a lot of moving parts, and we are still very much in the part of the season where it’s a very small sample size. But who do you think will be the team’s most valuable pitcher this year? I’d probably suggest going with the average of bWAR and fWAR, since they do measure things in slightly different ways. But it’s really up to you, how to define the term. Of course, please explain your choice in the comments.
