Thursday Morning Quarterback: D-Backs @ Mets, 7/3/13

I've talked a lot about using the various nationally televised baseball games as a framework to narrow my focus on the sport, and with these last two posts I've been putting it into practice. Last night the Arizona Diamondbacks settled in for their third of four games against the New York Mets for ESPN's July 3rd edition of Wednesday Night Baseball. The D-Backs and the Metropolitans (to use the two teams' shortened and elongated nicknames, respectively) actually have rosters that look quite similar to one another on paper. Each team has one sophomore pitching superstar - Patrick Corbin has emerged as one of the best lefties in the game and is the anchor for my very own fantasy astrology Cancer Crabs, while an All-Star starting gig is not out of reach of last night's starter Matt Harvey. And each team has one franchise player who's under contract until the end of the decade and beyond, respectively - first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and third baseman David Wright both signed lucrative extensions that kick in next year. The only difference is that Arizona is in first place in their weak division while New York NL is languishing behind the Braves and Nationals in theirs.

I didn't get to watch yesterday's game, since I have a real job - all I know is that Arizona pulled out a narrow victory and now can only hope for a series split with a win today. But before going over the box score in detail, I'd like to very briefly go team-by-team through the rosters and how they've performed thus far.

Rotation: After Corbin, this rotation gets very sad, with fellow lefty Wade Miley and former 20-game winner Ian Kennedy (who was just recently suspended for throwing at all the Dodgers) have put up surprisingly middling numbers. Last night's starter Randall Delgado, one of the pieces that came over from the Braves in the Justin Upton deal, has been hurt most of the season and hasn't even made the requisite 5 starts to qualify as a 1 SP (denoted by the --- in his Pos 2 column). Not pictured are injured starters Trevor Cahill and Brandon McCarthy (both former A's), who have both averaged about 6 fewer PPG than Miley and Kennedy, and the organization's #1 prospect Tyler Skaggs (#12 overall, according to Baseball America), who has been recalled on a start-by-start basis, presumably to keep his major league service time down and prevent Super Two status, but if this pennant race drags on, I don't know if they can afford to keep him in the minors.

Bullpen: Projected closer J.J. Putz was just recently activated from the DL, but it remains to be seen whether he will immediately take back the 9th or if placeholder Heath Bell will keep the job a little longer. None of the new additions have panned out as well as their holdovers: another former Athletic Brad Ziegler and decidedly un-clutch setup man David Hernandez have put up close to respectable numbers for relievers, but the real story has been long man Josh Collmenter who has really adapted well in his first season without a game started.

Infield: In what's becoming a theme for this team, second baseman Aaron Hill, who sports the second highest team PPG to assured All-Star starter Goldschmidt, has just come off the DL. In his absence, second sack was manned primarily by Willie Bloomquist (now on the DL himself), Martin Prado (who shifted over from 3B, which was taken over by Eric Chavez on those days) and Cliff Pennington (who's been splitting time at SS with rookie Didi Gregorius, who went unranked by MLB.com to start the season).

Outfield: The centerpiece of this outfield was supposed to be rookie leadoff man Adam Eaton (not the retired pitcher of the same name), but he hasn't yet played a game in 2013 due to injury. Luckily another rookie, A.J. Pollock, has filled in adequately in CF while Gerardo Parra has blossomed into the second most productive member of the offense, behind Goldy. Maybe all it took was the impending threat of an arbitration hearing to get him feeling good about himself. Neither of their high-price veteran corner outfielders have done anything close to productive: Jason Kubel and Cody Ross are making a combined $13.5 million and have produced an average of 7.3 PPG this year.

Rotation: Again we're seeing a very top-heavy rotation here: after Harvey = sadness. Jeremy Hefner and Dillon Gee are this team's versions of Miley and Kennedy, and Shaun Marcum's performance on a 1yr flier is about on par with McCarthy/Cahill. Also like Arizona, an injury to opening day starter Jon Niese has forced New York to start the future of their pitching staff early: the organization's #2 prospect (#11 overall) Zack Wheeler has earned himself a spot on this staff for the foreseeable future.

Bullpen: Talk about a bullpen makeover: after surprisingly effective closer Bobby Parnell (who has already almost equalled his fantasy point total from last year), none of the regular contributors were on this team last year. Veteran LaTroy Hawkins and lefty Scott Rice made the team out of Spring Training, Brandon Lyon, brought in on a deal worth less than $1mm, was supposed to show setup man potential, and David Aardsma (not the Waste Management executive) finally found his way back to the majors after being cut by both the Yankees and the Marlins (ouch).

Infield: This team's offense after David Wright may be even more sad than the pitching after Matt Harvey. Don't get me wrong, Daniel Murphy is having a solid season up the middle and John Buck's stats are still being boosted by his absolutely torrid start. But starting shortstop Ruben Tejada is injured and 1B Ike Davis has been optioned to the minors (after being ranked in the top 200 to start the year), but replacements Omar Quintanilla and Josh Satin have actually been performing better than the originals.

Outfield: It's sad when your outfield points leader is non-roster invitee Marlon Byrd, but that's the beauty of bad teams: they give otherwise over-the-hill players a chance to shine. Rick Ankiel was another such player, but he was cut last month - if he hadn't been, he would be the second highest-scoring outfielder on the roster. As it stands, that honor goes to Lucas Duda, who is sadly currently on the DL. So for me, the best outfield I can make out of this ragtag bunch is Byrd in RF, firebrand Jordany Valdespin in CF, and the newest member of the Mets Eric Young, Jr. (recently acquired from the Rockies) in LF.

Last Night's Game: As it happened, Valdespin sat out of the lineup in favor of Santa Monica native Kirk Nieuwenhuis, the one who was called up in favor of Ankiel. The rest of the Mets lineup managed three home runs - from Wright, Murphy, and Satin - but as they were all solo shots, they couldn't overcome Cody Ross's three-run blasts in the 6th inning. Chavez added an RBI on a double while subbing for Goldschmidt at 1B, as did C Miguel Montero. Also subbing in for a regular starter was Tony Campana who was called up yesterday prior to the game.

On the pitching front, after Delgado's 7 strong innings, Arizona called on David Hernandez for his 10th hold and Heath Bell for his 15th save, keeping Putz's situation somewhat in limbo. I'd guess they want to warm him up with some lower leverage innings before thrusting him back into the spotlight. Harvey punched out 9 batters over his 6 innings of work before giving way to New York's hodgepodge of a bullpen, not that it mattered after the 5 runs that Harvey gave up.

The final game of the series starts presently, with Ian Kennedy taking on Dillon Gee. Let's see if the headhunter can lead his snakes to a split or whether "Soft G" can help his team take 3 of 4.