Series Preview: American League @ National League

Not a typical series preview this week, but I figured why should I let a lack of baseball stop me from writing about baseball? Instead, I will just write my series preview about the All-Star game! This game is the annual matchup of good versus evil, light versus dark, National League versus American League. And playing for the good guys this year are four hometown heroes: Paul “America’s First Baseman” Goldschmidt, Jake “Baby Face” Lamb, Zack “Serious Face” Greinke, and Robbie “BreaKKKKKout” Ray. These baseball deities have travelled from the deserts of Arizona to represent the Diamondbacks, so let’s see what we can expect on Tuesday night!

These four players have led Arizona in 2017 to the best start in franchise history, and have been worth a combined 13.7 bWAR to date. Paul Goldschmidt is having his typical MVP-caliber season, while Zack Greinke is having a bounce back year to look like the ace that he was a few years ago. Jake Lamb and Robbie Ray have each taken another step forward in their developments, and both have blossomed to the point of becoming legitimate All-Stars. What’s even more impressive is that these players are thriving off of one another. Jake Lamb is providing Goldy some much needed protection in the lineup, and Greinke and Ray are seemingly trying to outdo each other every start. Needless to say, all four players are very worthy of their selections.

Statistics

Instead of giving you a table of stats on where these players stand today, I decided to make a table of projected stats for the entire season. So the following table is the pace that all four players are currently on:

These stats certainly resemble a couple of aces and a couple of offensive studs. Hopefully, these All-Stars can continue their success in the second half, get close to achieving these numbers, and help the Dbacks reach the playoffs for the first time since 2011.

All-Star Game

The game itself will be an exhibition of the best players on the planet, and will thankfully have absolutely no outcome on the home field advantage of the World Series. There will be a familiar face starting for the National League in Max Scherzer, and opposing him will be Chris Sale for the American League. Both pitchers are on pace for Cy Young level seasons, and have a legitimate shot at eclipsing the 300 strikeout threshold. Both pitchers are leaders of their respective teams *(which are both in first place in the Eastern Divisions), and have a combined ERA of 0.00000004. Alright, that last part is not true, but it sure feels like it.

Although there are four Dbacks represented in the All-Star game, none of them are starting. However, I would imagine that since the All-Star game is truly an exhibition again, we will get the opportunity to see all or most of the players. As such, I would expect to see our pitchers sometime in the middle innings, anytime from the fourth to seventh. And I would expect to see Goldy as a first replacement for Ryan Zimmerman, and Jake Lamb will probably be a late inning replacement to get a good matchup against a right-handed AL pitcher. Either way, we should have a good opportunity to see some Diamondbacks playing under the big lights tomorrow night.

Conclusion

I’m not going to try and make a prediction on this one since these types of games are always a crap shoot. But I am going to predict that it is going to be a fun game to watch, and I have a good feeling that we will see some impressive play from the Dbacks players. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and here’s to a second half that is as successful as the first!!!