Snake Bytes, 1/5: New Year, new D-backs?

Team news

[MLB Trade Rumors] 3 Remaining Needs: NL West - #1 for Arizona = Replace A.J. Pollock. Jarrod Dyson doesn’t offer enough upside, even to build value as a trade candidate, nor do the veterans signed to minor league deals thus far this offseason (Abraham Almonte, Kelby Tomlinson, Matt Szczur). They can attempt to build the value of an otherwise depreciating asset, a la Socrates Brito, they can move Marte to center and sign a stopgap veteran to flip at the deadline, a la Asdrubal Cabrera or Brian Dozier, or they can engage the trade market for an option in between those two, a la Michael A. Taylor, Kevin Pillar or Randal Grichuk.

[The Athletic] The Diamondbacks need a center fielder or a second baseman: What’s out there? - The Diamondbacks could certainly trade for a second baseman if they wanted, but Hazen has expressed a hesitancy to sacrifice any more of his admittedly weak farm system than he already has. Luckily, there are more free-agent options at second than there are in center... At 33, Asdrubal Cabrera is coming off another solid year in which he played every infield position but first. On top of being a switch-hitter, he basically would give the Diamondbacks a second Escobar and allow them to really play around with their lineup.

[Forbes] Unlikely Does Not Mean Impossible: D-backs Could Deal From Rotation Depth - The D-backs believe the organization is deepest in starting pitching, and while it is always dangerous to trade a healthy, productive arm, dealing from that strength could make sense as a way to address needs in center field and the right side of the infield and/or stocking the farm system.Their primary trade chips are Robbie Ray and Zack Greinke, and Ray has continued to draw interest from Houston and Atlanta as the offseason progresses and the free agent market thins.

[dbacks.com] Inbox: What are odds of Bradley, Lamb trades? - Is there a chance that Archie Bradley or Jake Lamb could be traded? I don't see that happening right now. I think if the season started today, Bradley would be the closer -- and manager Torey Lovullo has a lot of confidence in him. As for Lamb, they are counting on him to possibly play first base -- depending on what other moves they make. Another thing to keep in mind is that Lamb is coming off an injury, so even if they did want to trade him -- which I don't believe they do -- other teams would probably want to see him play before trading for him.

[The Athletic] Rare dingers: The Diamondbacks’ top 5 most unlikely homers of 2018 - Crushed home runs are great, but those sneaky ones that barely manage to find their way over the fence might be second-best. Thanks to batted-ball data, those least likely home runs are identifiable. The exit velocity, launch angle, and even hit probability of virtually every baseball hit into play can be accounted for. Those underlying tidbits tell the story of how likely, or in this case, how unlikely a home run is. So here are the five most unlikely home runs from the Diamondbacks in 2018.

[cbacks.com] D-backs' to-do list ahead of 2019 season - Hazen is of the opinion that a team can never have too much depth in the bullpen , so this is always going to be an area he's looking to bolster. Manager Torey Lovullo said he's leaning towards Archie Bradley being the team's closer, but that could change depending who Arizona adds between now and Spring Training. While you shouldn't expect the D-backs to bid big money for Craig Kimbrel or Adam Ottavino, they will likely add an arm or two, and if a closer should fall through the cracks, they will be ready to swoop in.

[Arizona Sports] Journey of D-backs’ Bo Takahashi shows value of being multilingual - Takahashi learned Spanish rather quickly once he started playing professional baseball, saying that the similarities between Portuguese and Spanish made it easier to pick up. In fact, by his third spring training, his Spanish was strong enough to fool fellow Diamondbacks minor leaguer Tyler Mark. “I thought he was just an Asian guy hanging out with all the Latins,” Mark said. “And then he just came out speaking Spanish and I was like, ‘OK, what’s that about?’ ”

And, elsewhere...

[NBC Sports Chicago] White Sox latest bullpen addition follows the 2018 model - It looks like the White Sox are giving themselves some bullpen depth in much the same way they accomplished that goal a year ago. And if it works out in similar fashion, we could see the latest addition in the major leagues in 2019. The White Sox added veteran reliever Randall Delgado on a minor league deal, according to FutureSox, seemingly following in the footsteps of last offseason's relievers on minor league contracts Hector Santiago, Chris Volstad, Bruce Rondon, Xavier Cedeno and Jeanmar Gomez.

And, slightly less known, but I’ve always been interested in D-backs from unusual places, such as Takahashi. Sadly. the German D-back has gone over to the other side...

[Adelaide Bite News] Solbach signs with LA Dodgers - Markus Solbach will make his return to professional baseball in the USA after signing a contract with the LA Dodgers ahead of his Thursday night start for the Bite against Geelong-Korea. From 2011-2016 he was in the Minnesota Twins and Arizona Diamondbacks organisations while he represents Germany internationally.

[Reddit] Graphs showing every team's consistency/volatility since 1996 - Inspired by a post on /r/hockey that showed the volatility of every NHL team (which, in of itself, was inspired by that Jon Bois video that showed the volatility of every NFL team since 1988), I made a series of graphs that showed the volatility of every MLB team since 1996. 1996 was convenient, since that spans 22 years, and it wasn't affected by the player's strike in 1994/95. [Guess which team is the most inconsistent? Clue: why is this post here?]