Diamondbacks Gameday Thread, #41: 5/14 vs. Giants

Two starts into his major-league career, Brandon Pfaadt has a 12.10 ERA. The only comparable beginning in D-backs history belongs to Casey Daigle, who had a remarkable 18.90 ERA (14 ER in 6.2 innings) after his first pair of outings. Daigle got to stick around, making ten starts before departing the rotation - but that was the 2004 team who a) weren’t going anywhere, and b) were devoid of alternative options. Another bad outing this afternoon, and you have to wonder if the team will considering sending Pfaadt back down to Reno. Drey Jameson seems to have been finding his feet in AAA, his last outing there being six innings of one-run ball.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, Dominic Fletcher continues to make noise of the pleasant and surprising kind. 12 games into his career, he has a line of 462/.488/.744 for a 1.231 OPS. Among D-backs with 30+ PA over that span, this is the highest figure since Mark Reynolds’s 1.314 in 2007, and the only other to post a better OPS is Alex Cabrera in 2000 (1.239, albeit with an asterisk there). Fletcher’s 18 hits trails only Reynolds (19), and his 13 RBI are tied with both Reynolds and Cabrera. Below, are the top ten Diamondbacks using those criteria. It’s an interesting list, containing both names you might expect and cautionary tales (Robby Hammock? Seth Beer?)

Of course, Fletcher’s hot start is not sustainable. He has a batting average on balls in play of .516, which is a good two hundred or more points above what you can expect in the long run. Those balls will start turning into outs sooner or later, and he hasn’t yet shown the plate discipline (two walks in 43 PA) which would help compensate for that. Let’s just hope Fletcher’s hot hand can continue for a bit longer, until Corbin Carroll regains his early-season form. This month, in nine games since coming back after ramming his knee into the outfield wall, Carroll is batting just .200, with a .627 OPS - in April, he hit .309 with a .910 OPS, so the drop-off is clear.

Speaking of both of them, Jack just Tweeted out an update on the NL Rookie of the Year rankings for position players. Note that James Outman has managed to sneak ahead of Carroll again, due to the latter’s recent downturn and absence, but Fletcher is number three with a bullet. I also note that the top ten players come from only five clubs.