Power-ranking the Arizona Diamondbacks: July

There were a total of 31 players used by Arizona in July: 14 position players and 17 pitchers. That is down two from June's tally, as we lost Mark Trumbo (#31), Archie Bradley (#30), J.C. Ramirez (#26, and now not coming back!), Allen Webster (#25) and Jordan Pacheco (#24), but gained Patrick Corbin, Zack Godley and Oscar Hernandez. It was still a much more stable month than June, when we had to add six players. As usual, this is based primarily on last month, but with weighting based on any trend from a previous month: breakout months will tend to be rewarded better than slumps, if both result in the same statistic.

1. Welington Castillo (last: #6), .311/.425/.623. #WeWonTheTrade Finally, someone dethrones Goldie after three straight months at #1, but hard to...er, have a beef with this choice, as Welly led the team with five home-runs. That's a pair more than Mark Trumbo hit in the past two months combined. Yes, it's heavily BABIP-dependent (.412). No, for the purpose of this piece, I don't care.
   
2. David Peralta (#10), .329/.398/.646. Fun fact: Peralta's six triples are the most ever by a Diamondback in a calendar month, and the most in the majors since Carlos Gomez had six in June 2013. Good to see David have a bounceback month, and he's also continuing to hang in there against lefties with a solid .737 OPS, though is still looking for his first career home-run there.
3. Jeremy Hellickson (#17), 1.88 ERA, 0.958 WHIP. Our best starter in July, a turnaround after one win in his first eight outings, and a 5.52 ERA. His second outing of the month was truncated due to a blister, but in the two since the break, he has allowed a pair of runs over 13 innings of work, with a dozen strikeouts. He has five quality starts in his last seven games. Yesterday... Not so much.
4. A.J. Pollock (#13), .340/.421/.511. Also bouncing back was AJ, who had an extremely active month on the basepaths too, stealing seven bases in eight attempts. and showed excellent plate discipline, with more walks (13) than strikeouts (11). Hopefully, the hamstring issue which saw him lifted from last night's contest, will not present any significant problem in August for Pollock.
5. Paul Goldschmidt (#1), .333/.455/.488. The king has lost his crown! But it may be temporary, due to a slow start which saw Goldie hit only .237 to the All-Star break. However, the time off ("off" = appearing in the ASG!) seems to have rejuvenated him. In the second-half, Paul is hitting .413/.531/.565, and currently has a 12-game hitting streak. Recorded his third straight 20-walk month, too.
6. David Hernandez (#27), 0.00 ERA, 0.522 WHIP. After finding his feat in June, July showed a return to form for Hernandez, who gave us seven scoreless appearances, holding batters to a .148 average, with no walks. His average fastball has been 94.3, just a hair lower than the 94.9 he posted before Tommy John in 2013, but so far, the early signs have been perfectly acceptable.
7. Oliver Perez (#8), 0.00 ERA, 1.000 WHIP. Perez was last charged with an earned run on June 1. Since then, he has made 20 appearances, faced 48 batters, and kept them to a .140 average, not having allowed an extra-base hit either. Probably still best kept away from righties, who have an .835 OPS against him this year, but the .518 figure against left-handed batters is excellent.
   
8. Brad Ziegler (#3), 0.77 ERA, 0.686 WHIP. Allowed an earned run this month, to match the one allowed in June. Chalked up six saves in six opportunities, and allowed only four hits to the 43 batters faced. Four walks in 11.2 innings was a little higher than we'd like, but Ziegler also fanned nine. Has 15 appearances in a row without a double-play, mostly because few have been on base!
9. Randall Delgado (#11), 0.73 ERA, 1.054 WHIP. Almost made it through, before an unfortunate incident in Seattle where he rolled over his right ankle during warmups. That led to Delgado being put on the DL, just when he was having his most solid month of the season. However, he should be ready to come back at the end of the 15-day stint, and hopefully start where he left off.
10. Zack Godley (NEW), 2.25 ERA, 1.167 WHIP. One of the best debuts in team history, tossing six shutout innings in his first start. The second wasn't quite as successful, but we saw enough to understand why the team regarded him highly. Probably gets one more start before the return of Anderson, but hasn't damaged his stock in the slightest with this performance.
    
11. Daniel Hudson (#9). 2.00 ERA, 1.333 WHIP. I know he wants to start, but maybe Hudson's future lies in closing for the Diamondbacks? He seems to have his stuff, and is striking out better than a batter per inning. I wouldn't mind seeing Hudson close, with Ziegler returning to a broader-based remit of relief. Cheaper than Chapman, in both cash and prospects, and could be as effective.
    
12. Ender Inciarte (#16), .339/.351/.500. Completing the trifecta of outfield improvement, though Ender did see his playing time cut in July, starting just half of our games. Didn't seem to affect him  too much, though we could still do with an improvement in his pitch selection, with just a single walk for the month, in 57 PA. On the other hand, had only five K's, so is clearly becoming Martin Prado.
13. Andrew Chafin (#7), 1.35 ERA, 0.975 WHIP. Look at Chafin, very quietly putting together one of the best seasons ever by a left-handed Arizona reliever. His season ERA of 2.68 is second-best (min 30 IP) among those pitchers, trailing only Greg Swindell's figure of 2.51 among  Anyone else not mind giving him a longer look as a starter? Or is his future a replacement for Perez next year?
14. Patrick Corbin (NEW), 3.21 ERA, 1.000 WHIP, Great just to see Corbin back. I'm not expecting much from him this season, as he gets his arm-strength back and "learns to pitch" again, after close to 21 months away from the majors. But the results so far, have been better than I'd have hoped. Corbin's K-rate is a career high, and his walks a career low. Fingers crossed this continues.
    
15. Robbie Ray (#4), 3.56 ERA, 1.253 WHIP. Ray suffered a bit from BABIP regression, as the .257 figure he had enjoyed prior to July, inflated up to .330, leading to more hits and runs. But unlike some of our starters, he has done a very good job at keeping the ball in the park, with just three HR allowed this year, in 66.2 innings. Mind you, I'm writing this before his start in Minute Maid today!
    
16. Jake Lamb (#15), .269/.318/.397. Left it late, but his his first home-run since June 28 in his final at-bat of the month. Hopefully, we'll see more of that going forward, and his power numbers become what you'd expect from a corner infield slot. Racked up the K's in July, fanning 24 times. Fun fact #2: his season OPS vs. left-handed pitching is now higher than that vs. righties (.785/.747).
17. Josh Collmenter (#19), 0.96 ERA, 1.714 WHIP. As that latter figure suggests it was a thoroughly unconvincing sub-one ERA for Collmenter, with a K:BB ratio in July of 5:8 in his 9.1 innings of work. Overall though, through the end of July Jose had performed much better as a reliever, with a 1,80 ERA out of the bullpen, compared to 5.24 as a starter. Much fewer innings, obviously.
18. Cliff Pennington (#20), .294/.306/.382. Cliff remains a weapon mostly off the bench, 10 of his 17 appearances for July coming in that way. Got his home-run for the season in on July 18, off Jake Peavy, giving him a total of four in 231 games as a Diamondback. Speaking of which, Pennington also has an 11-1 record in stolen bases for Arizona, so it seems he knows when to pick his spots!
19. Rubby De La Rosa (#12), 4.55 ERA, 1.483 WHIP. I vote we replaced the number on De La Rosa's jersey with a gigantic question-mark, because that inconsistency is about the only thing of which we can be certain. Eight shutout innings in one start... Eight home-runs and 15 runs allowed over 21.2 innings in his other four. We'll keep spinnin' the wheel, spinnin' the wheel...
    
20. Yasmany Tomas (#2), .262/.267/.417. Not a good month for Yasmany, especially since his BABIP still remained scarily high, at .370. Doesn't help when you have a K:BB ratio of 29:1. Yes, you read that correctly. The only worse figure in team history belong to Jerry Gil, who went 29:0 at the end of the horrendous 2004 season, and never had stepped to the plate in the major-leagues again.
21. Addison Reed (#32), 3.00 ERA, 1.000 WHIP. Small sample size, but the early returns have been pretty good, despite allowing a hit on his first pitch after coming back up from Reno, in place of Delgado. He has been throwing strikes, with five K's in three innings, though it will likely be quite a while before the spirit of Add-a-run Reed is exorcised entirely.
22. Aaron Hill (#28), .194/.318/.361. Still an Arizona Diamondback, the trade deadline now having gone. Hard to see what the team is going to do, that doesn't involve eating a lot of money - currently, around $18 million. Hill did walk more than his fanned in July (7:5) and most of his hits were for extra-bases, so he's clearly about to turn the corner. I'm not really convincing you, am I?
23. Jarrod Saltalamacchia (#18), .235/.316/.353. Spent much of the month on the DL, limiting Salty to half-a-dozen games. Somewhat surprised to see us go with three catchers, especially since Jarrod's offensive numbers - a .617 OPS for the season - don't exactly make him a potent weapon off the bench. I suppose if offers some late-inning flexibility, if you like that kind of thing.
24. Chris Owings (#23), .241/.294/.342. Did walk six times in July, which is pretty good considering he only walked eight in April, May and June combined. Still struck out four times as often though. making him 4-for-4 in 20 K months this year. Perhaps the trend of walks will continue to improve in the second half of the season? We can only hope that's the case, or choices will have to be made.
25. Matt Stites (#22), 4.50 ERA, 1.000 WHIP. Joined the "elite" club of Diamondbacks pitchers who were optioned twice to Reno in the same month, going down (or up?) there on July 4 to make room for Corbin, then coming back on the 19th in place of Burgos, only to be send down (or up?) once again four days later. Overall: three outings, two innings, one run allowed.
26. Nick Ahmed (#5), .184/.220/.250. It's a good thing defense never slumps (well, except for the first inning on Friday!), because Ahmed's bat certainly has been. That's a drop of 263 OPS points from the figure Nick posted in June, though his BABIP of .203 was also more than 50 points further below even the low June figure he posted. Wait it out, and wait for the balls to start finding turf.
27. Chase Anderson (#14), 9.00 ERA, 1.857 WHIP. Anderson appears to have run out of gas, and was placed on the DL after six straight starts where Chase's ERA increased, ending up more than 1.5 runs higher than where it was. In some ways, it's a little surprising; he threw 153.1 innings last season, and is well short of that so far. But we'll see what happens when comes back this month.
    
28. Oscar Hernandez (NEW), .158/.238/.211. The newest member of the D-backs is supposed to be stashed away at the back of the roster, and remained unseen in early June. But injuries and Welly's imitation of a punching-bag led to him starting six games. The results were about what you'd expect from a guy who turned 22 on July 9, and who hadn't played above A-ball before this season.
29. Danny Dorn (#29), .000/.000/,000. We'd like to thank Mr. Dorn for his three hitless at-bats off the Diamondbacks bench last month, and trust he is enjoying life in Reno.
30. Enrique Burgos (#21), 9.00 ERA, 1.750 WHIP. Burgos gonna Burgos. His K-rate of 13.71 per nine innings is the best for a season by a Diamondback with 20+ IP since Byung-Hyun Kim fanned 14.14 in 2001. However, his walk-rate of 4.71 is just too high to be tenable in the majors; although sadly, it's still better than Archie Bradley this year...
31. Dominic Leone (#33), 10.13 ERA, 1.500 WHIP. This month actually lowered Leone's ERA with the D-backs, down to 14.73. That is still the second-highest figure of anyone to have pitched tree or more innings for us; it trails the 22.09 put up by Saul Rivera over his 3.2 innings in 2010. Leone may be best remembered for being ejected after hitting a batter, in "retaliation" for Peralta's beaning.#