/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/45557440/usa-today-7380976.0.jpg)
How this works
Here is the complete list of winners since we started these in 2006. We'll be running one category a week for the next seven weeks, which should take us into the first week of February, when it'll almost be time for pitchers and catchers to report! So, that's nice. Here is the schedule:
- Week 1: Play of the Year - winner, David Peralta steals home
- Week 2: Single-game Performance of the Year - winner, Josh Collmenter's imperfect game
- Week 3: Game of the Year - winner, Killing Kershaw
- Week 4: Rookie of the Year - winner, David Peralta
- Week 5: Unsung Hero - winner, Evan Marshall
- Week 6: Pitcher of the Year
- Week 7: Most Valuable Player
For each, the pattern will be the same. Monday will be an open call for nominations - I'll offer some suggestions to get you going, but these are not etched in stone. So feel free to offer any suggestions in the comments - the number of "recs" received by suggestions will be a major factor in deciding which, if any, make the final list of nominees. That will then be posted on Wednsday morning, with accompanying video as appropriate. There will then be a two-day window for voting, with the winner being anointed on Friday morning. Rinse, repeat the following week, for the next category.
Pitcher of the Year nominations
After a couple of rounds where the competition turned out to be extremely close, without an "obvious" candidate, this one might be a bit more of a foregone conclusion. Though, the team as a whole struggled badly in the pitching department - our team ERA of 4.26 was ahead only of the Rockies, so there's perhaps an argument to be made for not awarding this one at all. But there were some decent individual performances, so let's start by crunching the numbers. Here are the stats for all 25 pitchers used by the Diamondbacks in 2015, in descending order of ERA+.
Rk | Name | W | L | G | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | ||||
1 | Joe Thatcher | 1 | 0 | 2.63 | 37 | 24.0 | 23 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 25 | 145 | 3.30 | 1.083 |
2 | Evan Marshall | 4 | 4 | 2.74 | 57 | 49.1 | 50 | 17 | 15 | 3 | 17 | 54 | 138 | 2.89 | 1.358 |
3 | Oliver Perez | 3 | 4 | 2.91 | 68 | 58.2 | 50 | 25 | 19 | 5 | 24 | 76 | 129 | 3.23 | 1.261 |
4 | Eury De La Rosa | 2 | 0 | 2.95 | 25 | 36.2 | 37 | 12 | 12 | 2 | 14 | 32 | 128 | 3.49 | 1.391 |
5 | Bradin Hagens | 0 | 1 | 3.38 | 2 | 2.2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 128 | 5.01 | 2.625 |
6 | Josh Collmenter | 11 | 9 | 3.46 | 33 | 179.1 | 163 | 75 | 69 | 18 | 39 | 115 | 108 | 3.87 | 1.126 |
7 | Brad Ziegler | 5 | 3 | 3.49 | 68 | 67.0 | 60 | 29 | 26 | 5 | 24 | 54 | 108 | 3.70 | 1.254 |
8 | Zeke Spruill | 1 | 1 | 3.57 | 6 | 22.2 | 27 | 11 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 14 | 106 | 2.56 | 1.368 |
9 | Vidal Nuno | 0 | 7 | 3.76 | 14 | 83.2 | 71 | 37 | 35 | 10 | 20 | 69 | 100 | 3.90 | 1.088 |
10 | Andrew Chafin | 0 | 1 | 3.86 | 3 | 14.0 | 13 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 10 | 100 | 3.63 | 1.500 |
11 | Chase Anderson | 9 | 7 | 4.01 | 21 | 114.1 | 117 | 56 | 51 | 16 | 40 | 105 | 93 | 4.22 | 1.373 |
12 | Bronson Arroyo | 7 | 4 | 4.08 | 14 | 86.0 | 92 | 40 | 39 | 10 | 19 | 47 | 92 | 4.32 | 1.291 |
13 | Addison Reed | 1 | 7 | 4.25 | 62 | 59.1 | 57 | 31 | 28 | 11 | 15 | 69 | 89 | 4.03 | 1.213 |
14 | Will Harris | 0 | 3 | 4.34 | 29 | 29.0 | 27 | 14 | 14 | 3 | 9 | 35 | 87 | 3.20 | 1.241 |
15 | Wade Miley | 8 | 12 | 4.34 | 33 | 201.1 | 207 | 103 | 97 | 23 | 75 | 183 | 86 | 3.98 | 1.401 |
16 | Ryan Rowland-Smith | 0 | 0 | 4.91 | 6 | 7.1 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 80 | 2.31 | 1.500 |
17 | Randall Delgado | 4 | 4 | 4.87 | 47 | 77.2 | 71 | 44 | 42 | 6 | 35 | 86 | 77 | 3.39 | 1.365 |
18 | Brandon McCarthy | 3 | 10 | 5.01 | 18 | 109.2 | 131 | 65 | 61 | 15 | 20 | 93 | 75 | 3.82 | 1.377 |
19 | Mike Bolsinger | 1 | 6 | 5.50 | 10 | 52.1 | 66 | 36 | 32 | 7 | 17 | 48 | 68 | 4.01 | 1.586 |
20 | Trevor Cahill | 3 | 12 | 5.61 | 32 | 110.2 | 123 | 76 | 69 | 9 | 55 | 105 | 67 | 3.89 | 1.608 |
21 | Matt Stites | 0 | 0 | 5.73 | 37 | 33.0 | 33 | 23 | 21 | 6 | 16 | 26 | 66 | 5.47 | 1.485 |
22 | J.J. Putz | 1 | 1 | 6.59 | 18 | 13.2 | 17 | 10 | 10 | 1 | 6 | 14 | 58 | 3.57 | 1.683 |
23 | Bo Schultz | 0 | 1 | 7.88 | 4 | 8.0 | 13 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 50 | 3.88 | 1.750 |
24 | Daniel Hudson | 0 | 1 | 13.50 | 3 | 2.2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 32 | 1.63 | 1.500 |
25 | Joe Paterson | 0 | 0 | 33.75 | 3 | 1.1 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 7.63 | 3.750 |
Team Totals | 64 | 98 | 4.26 | 162 | 1444.1 | 1467 | 742 | 683 | 154 | 469 | 1278 | 88 | 3.83 | 1.340 | |
Rank in NL | 15 | 1 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 7 | 8 |
It's a pretty dispiriting list, even if I note a FIP which suggests the team "should" actually have had better results, based purely on the pitching. Was this bad defense or bad luck? Possibly a little of both. You could argue the nominees select themselves, with only five managing to throw 40 innings with an ERA+ that even reached 100: Perez, Marshall, Collmenter, Ziegler and Nuño. There's then quite a steep drop-off to the next tier - and it's never a good sign when you have to go all the way down to 13th in the rankings to find your closer. It's probably a worse one when the high-water mark from your Opening Day rotation is Arroyo's ERA+ of 92.
2015 should be better, albeit on the Plexiglass principle that it can't really get much worse. But for now, does anyone think there's a case for nominating anyone outside the top five mentioned in the previous paragraph? Or is this one of those cases where the numbers don't lie?