Like us on Facebook here

Monday, April.22, 2013

The Arizona Diamondbacks got off to a great start at 8-4, but have recently cooled off. They have struggled on offense in key situations late in ballgames. They are ale also missing some key members from their line up.  The team has also encountered some hot teams and one of the tougher schedules in terms of playing team with winning records thus far.  Arizona is 2 – 1 vs STL, 3 – 0 vs MIL, 1 – 2 vs PIT, 1 – 2 vs NYY and 1 – 2 vs the Colorado Rockies.  All of these teams have a +.500 record.  The only team is the LA Dodgers (who they are 2 – 1 against this year, 8 – 10 overall – and were above .500 when they played them.)  The DBacks sit in 3rd in the NL West, 3 Games Behind the Colorado Rockies heading into play Monday night.

By Chris Lacey (Baseball Writer) Follow @aecanada12

The Arizona Diamondbacks started off the season great by going 8-4 in their first 12 games.  They were going to face a challenge in the third week of the season by staring a nine game road trip.

They were going to face The New York Yankees, Colorado Rockies, and San Francisco Giants. These three teams each represent a different degree of difficulty for Arizona.

The Yankees can score plenty of runs in short time frame because of their ability to hit HRs. The Rockies have a lineup that is strong top to bottom. The Giants have a great bullpen with an offense that is improving each game.

Arizona Diamondbacks 2013 Intro Video. Mature Lyrics – Parental Guidance Is Advised:

Wade Miley has done a terrific job for the club this season. The opposition is only has a .206 Batting Average against him, and they are only hitting .182 with RISP. Miley also has 1.08 WHIP.

Arizona struggled in the series with the Yankees, because they were not able to take advantage of scoring opportunities. They were able to score first in each game of the series, but were unable to score more once the opposing starter for the Yankees ran into trouble. The key area that hurt them was when they had runners in scoring position.

The Diamondbacks just could not bring them home, but in the last game of the series against  the Yankees they managed to break out of that slump with the help of two veterans in Eric Chavez and Cody Ross, who came through in clutch situations.

The series was not a total loss for Arizona as they did lose two out of three games. The starting rotation displayed how good it will be this season. The two pitchers that stood out were Wade Miley and Patrick Corbin.

Miley did a great job of going after the Yankee hitters with fastball and his slider. Miley also did a great job of putting the hitters away with fewest pitches possible. He did have some problems in his last inning of work. The problem was that he looked tired and he just was unable to finish the hitters off that he faced when there were two strikes on them.

Patrick Corbin was facing his favorite team growing up in the Yankees. Corbin pitched an outstanding game, where he showed the ability to control the pace of the game with his aggressive pitching style.

Corbin had his velocity up in this start and was able to put the Yankee hitters away with a mix of his fastball, changeup, and slider. Corbin has shown that in his starts this season he will take a very aggressive approach to going after the opposition.

He is also pitching with plenty of confidence in his abilities, and he is showing that confidence by being the best starter in the Diamondbacks rotation.

Corbin has been just what the Diamondbacks needed pitching out of 5th slot in the rotation. Corbin has shown this season what happens when you have confidence as a starting pitcher. He had 1.42 ERA and 1.05 WHIP. Corbin has held opposing teams to a .197 batting average against him, and they just hit .200 off him with RISP.

The Rockies series for Arizona was one in that they had a chance to make a statement against one of the hottest teams in MLB.  Arizona had issues with scoring runs in their previous games, while Colorado had an average of 5.8 Runs Per Game.

Arizona did a good job of limiting the amount of runs that the Rockies were able to score in the series, but the only problem was that they could not score runs themselves. Arizona would drop two of the three games to the Rockies as well.

Once again the pitching staff did their job of limiting another team from scoring, but the offense had some issues providing run support to the starters.

The previous series with the Yankees, the problem was not taking advantage when they were able to generate scoring opportunities. When they faced the Rockies pitching staff, they could not create those scoring opportunities, and struggled on offense.

There was one bright spot for the club though; they received a spark on offense from an unlikely source in their top shortstop prospect Didi Gregorius, who was brought up due to an injury to second baseman Aaron Hill.

Gregorius hit a HR on first pitch he saw in Yankee Stadium, and then in the last game of the Rockies series he came through for the team once again by igniting the team with another HR in Coors Field.

He has shown that in his limited at-bats he has some power, and this is a surprise because the reports on him were that his offense still needed some improvement. The amount of injuries that the Diamondbacks have dealt with has impacted the team, and his offense will be a great boost to the team.

The offense for Arizona has to improve, but once they get all of injured players healthy they will perform better and rise to the top of standings in the NL West Division.

Gregorius has been the spark that the Diamondbacks desperately needed in their line up. He has shown that he can hit for power, as indicated by him mashing 2 HR in 3 games played.  Gregorius was signed as an Amateur Free Agent in 2007 by the Cincinnati Reds – and came over in the 3 way trade with the Indians and Dbacks prior to the year.  He is 22 Years Old and hails originally from the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.  Gregorius was hitting for an OPS of 1.069 in 33 At-Bats for Reno of the PCL this year.  He also had 2 HRs.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com or their partners.***

A big thank-you goes out to our ”Diamondbacks Correspondent’ Chris Lacey. Chris has been a fan of watching baseball since the age of 13. Now he does like all sports – but his favorites after baseball are  hockey and basketball.  Chris is very good with computers and is a college graduate.  

Chris is very active on Twitter and especially during the baseball season chatting with other Diamondbacks fans. Be sure to follow him and talk about the great game of baseball. Follow @aecanada12

Please e-mail me  at: mlbreports@gmail.com with any questions and feedback.  You can follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.  To subscribe to our website and have the Daily Reports sent directly to your inbox, click here and follow the link at the top of our homepage.

Like us on Facebook here