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Mike Foltynewicz
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Zack Godley
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| Ender Inciarte - CF | Jean Segura - 2B |
| Adonis Garcia - 3B | Michael Bourn - CF |
| Freddie Freeman - 1B | Paul Goldschmidt - 1B |
| Matt Kemp - LF | Jake Lamb - 3B |
| Nick Markakis - RF | Yasmany Tomas - RF |
| Tyler Flowers - C | Welington Castillo - C |
| Chase d'Arnaud - 2B | Mitch Haniger - LF |
| Dansby Swanson - SS | Chris Owings - SS |
| Mike Foltynewicz - RHP | Zack Godley - RHP |
The D-backs did pretty well when the two sides met in Atlanta, taking all three games by a combined margin of 16-7. However, since then, the Braves have promoted Dansby Swanson, received from Arizona in the increasingly infamous Shelby Miller. He joins another part of that trade, Ender Inciarte, in the Braves' line-up here. Inciarte has been a mainstay, save for a period early in the year when he was on the DL. As in his time here, it has been more Ender's glove that has been of value. His line at the plate is .270/.329/.355, for a .684 OPS that's no great shakes, but he comfortably leads the team in defensive WAR, and has an overall value of 2.2 bWAR.
Swanson has appeared in four games thus far, going 4-for-16 with one double, a walk and three strikeouts for a line of .250/.294/.313 and a .607 OPS. I'm sure he'll be fully motivated to do well this evening, and his four plate-appearances will, of course, provide a definitive decision on who won the trade. This is sarcasm, in case you couldn't tell. But I sincerely doubt that will stop all manner of "We won/lost the trade!" hawt takes from being expressed on social media this evening. If Swansom homers, I fully expect Twitter to explode. Because that is what Twitter does.
At least there will no longer be the Olympics to draw attention from baseball. This morning was close to the first time this month we've actually watched something without a podium at the end of it, and it felt kinda weird. I'll miss not having our daily fix of handball, and suspect we'll still be imitating synchronised swimmers walking out on deck, for some time to come. Despite all the qualms before, everything seemed to go off relatively smoothly, which is perhaps an indication that predictions of doom tend to be over-rated .There's probably a metaphor there for the Diamondbacks situation. I'm just not certain what it is...