Diamondbacks vs. Nationals discussion

NATIONALSDIAMONDBACKSJames Wood – DHKetel Marte – 2BLuis Garcia – 1BCorbin Carroll – RFCurtis Mead – 3BGabriel Moreno – CCJ Abrams – SSNolan Arenado – 3BDylan Crews – RFPavin Smith – DHDaylen Lile – LFRyan Waldschmidt – CFKeibert Ruiz – CGeraldo Perdomo – SSJose Tena – 2BLuJames Groover – 1BJacob Young – CFTommy Troy – LFCade Cavalli – RHPMichael Soroka – RHPThe Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves. The D-backs’ 40-man roster is at 40.

• Reinstated from the family medical emergency list: RHP Taylor Clarke
• Optioned to Triple-A Reno: LHP Philip Abner (following yesterday’s game)

Abner didn’t exactly cover himself in glory, during his brief stay on the big-league roster. When he came into Friday night’s game, it was already out of hand, the D-backs trailing 7-1 in the top of the sixth. Seventeen pitches from Phil later, it was really out of hands, the Nationals have scored five runs on two home-runs, one of them a grand-slam. He has pitched 3.2 innings in the majors this year, with an ERA of 17.18. That kind of performance is more likely to get you a ticket to DFAville. To be fair, Abner only turned 24 last month and being a lefty, also gives him a longer leash. His 5.12 ERA over a large sample size in Reno is also better than team average (5.56).

But to illustrate something I said in the GDT yesterday: the performances of Abner, Kade Stroud and Drey Jameson since getting called up illustrate the lack of depth in the D-backs bullpen. All told, Arizona’s relief corps is firmly in the middle of the pack. Their overall 4.13 ERA ranks 16th, and at the risk of flogging a deceased equine, that’s considerably better than we’ve managed in most of Mike Hazen’s tenure. But there’s a huge gulf between the regular guys and the ones we’ve asked to fill in. Below is a breakdown of all the relievers used by Arizona this season, in descending order of innings pitched.

Excluding Brandon Pfaadt – who was only in the bullpen as a failed starter, and is now down in Reno – the top eight all have an ERA below 3.50. Small sample sizes, but the ones below them have all have an ERA of 5.40 or worse: and the best among them is actually third-string catcher Adrian Del Castillo. If you add up all the work by those two groups, here’s what you get:
A-bullpen: 157.2 IP, 111 H, 50 R, 44 ER, 11 HR, 43 BB 142 SO, 2.51 ERA
B-bullpen: 30.1 IP, 48 H, 41 R, 38 ER, 8 HR, 23 BB, 23 SO, 11.27 ERA

Obviously, every bullpen is going to have its weak links. But it’s striking that if you exclude the position players from the B-bullpen, the overall ERA of the remaining pitcher would go up. So far, we’ve been remarkably lucky in terms of the A-pen being almost entirely healthy. If that doesn’t continue, it could pose major problems over the next few months.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering. This is not an early Gameday Thread, it’s an early game. A 12:15 pm start, because it’s on Peacock. I wonder how many people will show up at Chase expecting the usual 1:05 pm first pitch?

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