Arizona Diamondbacks Game Preview, #50: All change

Christian Friedrich LHP, 0-1, 2.89

Robbie Ray LHP, 2-3, 4.18

Jon Jay - CF	Jean Segura - 2B
Wil Myers - 1B	Brandon Drury - 3B
Matt Kemp - RF	Paul Goldschmidt - 1B
Yangervis Solarte - 2B	Rickie Weeks - LF
Melvin Upton Jr. - LF	Welington Castillo - C
Brett Wallace - 3B	Yasmany Tomas - RF
Derek Norris - C	Chris Owings - CF
Alexei Ramirez - SS	Nick Ahmed - SS
Christian Friedrich - LHP	Robbie Ray - LHP

The old Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times," has a resonance this afternoon in Diamondbacks-land, as the wholesale roster changes announced today take effect. We'll have a detailed look at them all tomorrow, and what it means for the longer-term. But as far as the opening game of the Padres' series is concerned... It really doesn't have too much impact out of the gate. I guess we might see some of the new bullpen arms in action, depending on the game situation. But looking at the line-up above, you wouldn't know there had been such a hefty turnover on the roster.

Interesting to see Tomas starting in right. Just the third such appearance for him this year, the other 36 all having been in left-field. That spot if occupied by Weeks tonight, which was also the case on the two previous Tomas trips to right. Bit surprised to see Weeks batting in the clean-up spot, but he actually has an .844 OPS when he is in the starting line-up, compared to .733 coming off the bench, with both his home-runs being as a starter. Small sample-size applicable, obviously. It'll be interesting to see what happens with David Peralta returns: will Weeks, Michael Bourn or new arrival Peter O'Brien be sent down to make room?

Otherwise, we'll see how Robbie Ray manages his pitch-count, which was a severe problem last time - one run over five innings is good, but emptying the tank to get there, not so much. His last six starts, he has averaged more than 100 pitches per outing, and thrown a total of only 29 innings, averaging 6.9 pitches to record each out. That's not a recipe for going deep into games, and with Ray now effectively the team's #3 starter, he needs to begin pitching like it. The rest of the season starts here, and a sweep over the Padres would be a good way to begin it.