The First-half Arizona Diamondbacks: Rated

On Tuesday, we gave you a chance to rate each of the 35 players who appeared for the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first half, on a scale from 1 to 10. As usual, we deliberately left open-ended the question of what was meant by that: you could vote based on pure performance, on performance relative to pre-season expectations, or prettiness. We don’t judge you here. Almost eighty of you took the time to submit your ballots, and for that, we thank you.

Here are the results. For each player, you’ll see their ranking, name, position in the pre-season poll or (N) if they were not present in it, and average vote, out of 10. Note that the pre-season poll included 56 names, compared to this one’s 35, so you probably can’t directly match positions to positions.

• 1. Paul Goldschmidt (1) - 9.71
• 2. Zack Greinke (3) - 9.62
• 3. Archie Bradley (12) - 9.33
• 4. Robbie Ray (6) - 8.99
• 5. Jake Lamb (4) - 8.69
• 6. Zack Godley (30) - 8.65
• 7. Chris Owings (10) - 7.86
• 8. David Peralta (5) - 7.79
• 9. Andrew Chafin (16) - 7.58
• 10, Randall Delgado (18) - 7.40
• 11. Brandon Drury (7) - 6.95
• 12. Taijuan Walker (8) - 6.95
• 13. Daniel Descalso (17) - 6.82
• 14. Chris Iannetta (20) - 6.59
• 15. Gregor Blanco (27) - 6.17
• 16. T.J. McFarland (N) - 6.15
• 17. A.J. Pollock (2) - 6.05
• 18, Nick Ahmed (21) - 5.99
• 19. Jorge De La Rosa (N) - 5.97
• 20. Jeff Mathis (26) - 5.96
• 21. Ketel Marte (25) - 5.76
• 22. Fernando Rodney (11) - 5.59
• 23. Rey Fuentes (45) - 5.40
• 24. Jeremy Hazelbaker (31) - 5.24
• 25. Chris Herrmann (15) - 5.10
• 26. J.J. Hoover (39) - 4.99
• 27. Patrick Corbin (9) - 4.91
• 28. Rubby De La Rosa (24) - 4.58
• 29. Tom Wilhelmsen (N) - 3.97
• 30. Braden Shipley (19) - 3.56
• 31. Jake Barrett (14) - 3.53
• 32. Shelby Miller (23) - 3.49
• 33. Yasmany Tomas (13) - 3.40
• 34. Ildemaro Vargas (47) - 3.27
• 35. Silvino Bracho (40) - 2.97

No real surprises at the top, with Goldschmidt retaining the #1 position he had during spring training. His first-half performance, if maintained after the break, should see him in the running for the NL Most Valuable Player award. Four of the top five were also in the top half-dozen before the season. The exception is Bradley, whose dominant performances out of the bullpen have elevated our likely 2018 closer to third place. Rounding out those with an elite score above eight is the biggest jump in the standings, which belongs to Godley. Barely ranked in the top thirty before Opening Day, he’s certainly the breakout performance of the first half, climbing 24 places.

Among the other players to post double-digit improvements are Blanco, up a dozen spots to #15, and Rey Fuentes, who moves up 22 spots. Leading the new entries is McFarland, who was added to the spring mix too late for the pre-season poll, but whose 2.39 ERA to this point has him now occupying 16th-place. The largest drop belongs to Tomas, whose combination of injury and ineffectiveness sees him lose 20 spots, to end the first half in 33rd. Also going down by more than ten positions is the barely-seen Jake Barrett, who was expected by many to be a key bullpen arm, but has only thrown 1.2 innings thus far. Pollock’s lengthy DL stint drops him from #2 to #17.

For those who prefer their information in visual form, here’s a chart showing the same data.