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Diamondbacks line-up
- A.J. Pollock, CF
- Chris Owings, SS
- Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
- Jake Lamb, 3B
- Yasmany Tomas, LF
- Brandon Drury, 2B
- David Peralta, RF
- Jeff Mathis, C
- Zack Greinke, P
Comparing this against the line-up in 2016, there are three different names today: Pollock, Drury and Mathis. Last year, we had Nick Ahmed (Owings played center due to Pollock’s injury), Jean Segura and Welington Castillo. This will be Goldschmidt’s sixth Opening Day start - only Luis Gonzalez has now made more for the D-backs. It will be Pollock’s and Owing’s fourth, while Tomas, Peralta, Lamb and Greinke make their second. Mathis and Drury will be making their first Opening Day start for Arizona - Mathis had three under his belt during his time with the Los Angeles Angels, but this will be his first since 2011.
It will be interesting to see if the Mathis-Greinke battery becomes a regular thing over the course of the season. You could also likely argue a case for having Greinke bat above Mathis, purely based on hitting ability. For since 2013, Greinke has an OPS+ of 71, while Mathis is at 51. The career numbers also favor Greinke, though by a smaller margin. Though maybe that’s why Greinke is 9th!