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Tuesday, April.23, 2013

The Arizona Diamondbacks have great tandem in the 4th and 5th slots in their rotation.Wade Miley and Patrick Corbin have been as reliable as you can get with pitchers that are in the bottom part of their rotation.The two pitchers are undefeated this season – and look to be  part of the future for Arizona. They provide some depth to the rotation.

By Chris Lacey (Baseball Writer) Follow @aecanada12

The Arizona Diamondbacks knew that their starting rotation was going to be a strength for the club this season, but there are two pitchers who have performed better than they were expected to. The front-end of the Starting Rotation includes; Ian Kennedy, Trevor Cahill, and Brandon McCarthy.

They have pitched good, but not great in their starts this season. These 3 Starters were expected to carry the rotation, and help Arizona reclaim the NL West Division Title. The three pitchers that Arizona has in the front part of their rotation have under-performed in their starts this season.

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Ian Kennedy is the ace of the starting rotation for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He has pitched well this season, but there are some areas that he can improve upon. The key area would be to limit his walks.

The back-end of the Diamondbacks Starting Rotation has stood out for the team so far this season. They have two Left – Handed Starters have pitched like they are seasoned veterans.

The two starters are Wade Miley and Patrick Corbin, who have pitched excellent in each of their starts this season. Miley was coming off a rookie season in which he won 16 games for an Arizona team that struggled to win games, and he came in second in NL The Rookie of The Year voting to Bryce Harper.

Corbin had an average season for the Diamondbacks in 2012, and he was brought up to majors at different times last season for Arizona. When Corbin was promoted from Reno to Arizona he struggled in his first start with locating his fastball, and he could not command his breaking pitches.

The Diamondbacks sent him back to Reno to work on his fastball command, and to have a better feel for his breaking pitches. Corbin was brought back up to Arizona with more than five weeks left in the 2012 season, and he was a different pitcher. He came back with better command of his fastball, and breaking pitchers were sharper than before.

Corbin did throw the ball better in his return, but he still had a high ERA as he ended the season with a 4.54 ERA in 17 games he started. He did improve, but there was no guarantee he would be a member of the starting rotation in the 2013 season.

Corbin was set to compete with fellow rookie pitchers Tyler Skaggs and Randall Delgado to determine who would earn the 5^th spot in the rotation. Corbin performed better than both of the pitchers and it came as no surprise that he was named the 5^th Starter for Arizona. The only surprise during the spring was that Skaggs struggled with his command in his starts.

Skaggs was the Diamondbacks top left-handed pitching prospect, and most people believed he would earn spot in the starting rotation. Corbin just looked like he had more confidence in the spring, and believed in his abilities as a pitcher. Skaggs is still part of future for Arizona, but for now Corbin looks like the best left-hander that the Diamondbacks have.

Wade Miley just had a start against the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants, and pitched a terrific game. Miley also did something that no Left-handed pitcher had been able to do, and that is hit a HR in AT&T Park. Miley also did a great job of maintaining his velocity throughout the start.

There was one thing that Corbin showed in the spring, which was not apparent when he was pitching for the club in 2012. He showed higher velocity with his fastball when he made starts in spring training, and this was a shock to people who had scouted him before. They thought that his fastball would stay in the upper 80s and lower 90s.

The fastball for Corbin started in mid 90s and would then drop down to the lower 90s. I believe this is where the confidence for him started to grow. He also had the look of a pitcher that felt like he belonged with big league club.

He was able to attack opposing hitters with his fastball more often, and the most important thing for Corbin is that he was throwing more strikes.

Once the 2013 season began for Corbin, he picked up right where he left off from the spring. He has taken a very aggressive approach on how he will attack opposing hitters.  The man from Clay, NY has shown the type of progress that Miley made after his first season with Arizona.

Corbin has also made the Diamondbacks Starting Rotation look stronger this season. At the beginning of the campaign, he looked like he could be at best a number four pitcher in the rotation, but with his performance he has looked like the #2 Starter.

The progress that Miley and Corbin have made will only make the club a better team as the season moves forward. 

Patrick Corbin has looked like the Diamondbacks best starting pitcher this season besides Miley. While the pitchers at the top of the rotation have struggled to be consistent, Corbin has been superb with the command of his fastball, and the location of his breaking pitches. The Diamondbacks are also 3-0 in his starts this season. Corbin has also added some stability to the 5th spot in the rotation for Arizona.

*** 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

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