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This is not meant to be deeply analytical, predictive, projecting, or anything else. It’s just an observation and a summary of the obvious. Since being acquired the 3 veteran relievers the Diamondbacks picked up at the trade deadline, Brad Zieger, Jake Diekman, and Matt Andriese, have not pitched very well. They’ve each had at least 1 or 2 blowup games in their short tenures and just have not looked very stable or dependable.
When you pick up veteran guys like this, there is an expectation of dependability and most of us thought/hoped we would be getting upgrades not only over the relievers that were let go, (Jorge De La Rosa & Randall Delgado), but also over the minor league options on the 40 man such as Silvino Bracho, as well as “3 depth guys” Jake Barrett, Jimmie Sherfy, and Joey Krehbiel.
But so far, very early into this part of the season, it’s been the exact opposite.
Below is a quick summary of accumulative performance the “3 new guys” since joining the D-Backs (excluding this afternoon’s, somewhat hopeful performances by Ziegler and Andriese), the “3 depth guys” from their earlier season callups, and Bracho, grouped side by side. These are very small sample sizes, and not meant to be predictive at all......again, just a summary of what’s actually happened.
Relievers quick summary
| Name | IP | ERA | R | ER | IR | IRS | IRS% | H | HR | BB | SO | WHIP | H9 | HR9 | BB9 | SO9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | IP | ERA | R | ER | IR | IRS | IRS% | H | HR | BB | SO | WHIP | H9 | HR9 | BB9 | SO9 |
| 3 new guys ttl | 11.3 | 7.94 | 13 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 40% | 19 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 2.12 | 15.1 | 2.4 | 4.0 | 7.1 |
| 3 depth guys ttl | 12.3 | 2.92 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 13% | 10 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 1.38 | 7.3 | 1.5 | 5.1 | 5.8 |
| Silvino Bracho | 17.7 | 2.04 | 4 | 4 | 16 | 7 | 44% | 9 | 0 | 5 | 23 | 0.79 | 4.6 | 0.0 | 2.5 | 11.7 |
If you want to see individual pitching lines of the new guys since coming here see Relievers Last 14 Days Report from Fangraphs. You can also find the team year to date summary for relievers HERE
Reliever volatility is a concept that has been discussed at length over the years here. It takes a long time to build up trust, and it takes just few bad outings to tear it down and leave one feeling nervous for at least while after those bad outings. Who do you trust? When can you trust them? These are the answers Mike Hazen and Torey Lovullo and the rest of the staff are searching for. They obviously thought they could trust these veterans more than the guys they already had in the system. They are a patient bunch, and I’m sure they will outwardly continue to show trust and confidence in the horses they chose. But down deep in those dark spaces where doubt and fear reside, there has to be at least a few twinges of second guessing.
Fingers crossed, (so tight I have cut off the circulation) they right the ship soon, and that the 1.2 hitless innings thrown by Ziegler and Andriese this afternoon is the start of better things to come.