Diamondbacks Game Preview #117: 8/17 @ Giants

No official notification as I start to write this, but every indication is that the Stone Age has begun:

There have been a lot of requests for Garrett to get a call-up. The numbers above look quite shiny, though a .900 OPS in Triple-A is less impressive when the Pacific League as a whole has an .806 OPS, almost 100 above the major-league figure of .708. We can perhaps also compare Garrett to the numbers in Reno by other prospects (all with at least 150 PA there). Jake McCarthy had a 1.053 OPS; Cooper Hummel was at .950; the still struggling Seth Beer was at .867; and Alek Thomas hit .857. At the major-league level, Thomas is the closest of that quarter to his Reno figure, and even he is 185 points lower at .672. On that basis, if Garrett can sustain an OPS of .700 in the majors, I’ll be impressed.

Ah, and here we go.

Roster moves

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves:

• Selected OF Stone Garrett (No. 46) from Triple-A Reno.
• Designated LHP Paul Fry for assignment.
• Optioned INF Seth Beer to Reno following last night’s game.
• The D-backs’ 40-man roster is now at 40.

So long Paul Fry, we barely knew ye. You will become one of THOSE answers for the 2022 D-backs Sporcle, having made one appearance, throwing one inning and allowing a run on two hits and two walks. Pour one out for him. Speaking of which, the latest helping of Beer didn’t go down well either (as someone put it: “Beer got stoned”!), Seth’s season declining after a walk-off homer against the Padres on Opening Day. It’s perhaps a salutary lesson on the perils of taking Reno stats at face value. He was sent down in mid-May with his OPS at .585. For the Aces, he put up a decent line of .249/.381/.479 for an .860 OPS, which got him recalled at the start of August. Since then? .133/.212/.133 for an even more feeble .345 OPS.

Still, even if my expectations are considerably more restrained than some, it’s always nice to see a fresh face making their first major-league appearance. So I’m prepared to put my doubts aside, cheer enthusiastically for Garrett and see what he does. Though this isn’t perhaps the Youth Movement I’m really interested in, since the move actually makes the team a little older. Stone was born about 10 months before Beer. It’s also replacing a 1B/DH with an outfielder, which makes the latter a bit more crowded. Be interesting to see how Torey Lovullo constructs the outfield line-ups. Though Garrett is at least a pure right-hander, so it could be Jordan Luplow who sees his playing time cut into. Not tonight though.