Preview: Game #103, Diamondbacks vs. Padres

Eric Stults LHP, 8-8, 3.45

Randall Delgado RHP, 2-3, 3.43

Diamondbacks line-up

1. A.J. Pollock, CF
2. Aaron Hill, 2B
3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
4. Martin Prado, 3B
5. Cody Ross, RF
6. Wil Nieves, C
7. Gerardo Parra, RF
8. Cliff Pennington, SS
9. Randall Delgado, P

Nice to see the standings go in the right direction last night: it has been a while. In fact, it's two weeks exactly since the last time we gained ground, the 2-1 win over the Brewers on July 12 extending our lead in the NL West to 2.5 games. Since then, it had all been one-way traffic, up until our victory last night which, combined with the Reds managing to stop the Dodgers in Los Angeles, pulled the Diamondbacks within half a game of the Dodgers. That sets up this series as key, with a chance for Arizona to take the lead back, against a relatively-weak opponent, compared to Cincinnati.

Counterpoint: Eric ******* Stults, who is the epitome of the soft-tossing left-hander, that every one feels should be treated like batting practice, and beaten like a Dodger bobblehead. However, it's should be noted that since the beginning of last season, Stults has made 36 starts with a pretty credible 111 ERA+, and been worth 3.3 bWAR. So, it's clearly not just us against who he has found some success. Admittedly, his June 14th complete-game win over us, was his second-best performance of the year, trailing only an eight inning, 12 K outing against the Mariners on May 29, But we also tagged him with the L in his start prior to that, as he allowed four runs in 6.1 innings at Chase.

Random fact I noticed earlier, and Tweeted about. By bWAR, Martin Prado (0.9) has been more valuable than Justin Upton (0.7) this season. Of course, that's only a couple of the players involved in the deal, and you also get a bit of a different answer if you look at fWAR, but it's amazing how things have turned over the course of the past few months. Here are the numbers for everyone, using both fWAR and bWAR:

Not included: SS prospect Nick Ahmed, who was also part of the deal for us. Also worth mentioning that Johnson and Upton earn $12.625 million this year, compared to Prado's $7 million (plus relative pocket change for Delgado and Spruill). It's certainly a lot closer now, than it was at the end of April: I can't get bWAR splits, but for fWAR through the first month, Prado was at -0.3, Upton at 1.6 and Johnson at 0.7, so Atlanta were 2.6 fWAR ahead at that stage. Ah, I miss the days of trolls charging in to report on every Upton hit. Hell, who am I kidding. No, I don't. :)