Diamondbacks Gameday Thread, #12: 4/11 vs. Brewers

Roster moves

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves:

• RHP José Ruiz reported to the team and is active.
• Placed RHP Scott McGough on the Paternity List.

The D-backs’ 40-man roster remains at 40.

This was brought up in last night’s broadcast, as McGough pitched a scoreless eighth inning. According to the rules, a player must remain on the Paternity Leave List for at least 24 hours, but no more than 72 hours, so it’s possible that Ruiz might not even get a chance to pitch, depending on the team’s needs and exactly how long Scott is away. Given Ruiz’s ugly start to the season - nine earned runs in 3.2 innings for the White Sox - it doesn’t seem likely he’ll immediately be seeing any high-leverage situations. But from his debut in 2017 through the end of last season. Jose had an ERA+ of 104 across 175 MLB IP, so if this start is simply a brutal aberration, he could be a reasonable acquisition.

Tonight, we’ll be hoping that Merrill Kelly can follow in the footsteps of Zac Gallen last night, and get back on course. An ERA of 3.86 is fine for Kelly, and the FIP isn’t too far out of touch with that at 4.25, but he has as many walks as strikeouts (8 of each) in that time, It’s already more than he walked all of last April, covering five starts and 28.1 innings. Part of the problem is Kelly has simply thrown more pitches than anyone else. He has averaged 4.12 pitches per plate appearance, the highest figure of any Arizona starter, and well above the league average of 3.92. He needs to avoid falling behind batters: when he throws ball 1, opposing hitters have a brutal 1.177 OPS against him compared to .500 if he gets strike 1.