Diamondbacks Gameday Thread, #44: 5/17 @ Athletics

Roster moves

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves:

• Recalled RHP Luis Frías from Triple-A Reno.
• Optioned OF Alek Thomas to Reno following last night’s game.

To be honest, I’m surprised it took them so long - and the day before an off-day at that! - for the team to go to an eight-man bullpen. The relief corps has been seriously overtaxed for quite some time. Here’s their workload going back

• May 16: 6.2 innings
• May 15: 2.0 innings
• May 14: 4.0 innings
• May 13: 1.1 innings
• May 12: 4.1 innings
• May 11: 2.1 innings
• May 10: 3.0 innings
• May 9: 4.0 innings
• May 8: 2.0 innings
• May 7: 4.0 innings
• May 6: 3.0 innings

That’s an average of 3.1 innings per night, every night for the last 11 days. Here’s hoping that Ryne Nelson can go deeper than five innings this afternoon. It’s been a while since he has. April 15, in fact. Over the five starts since then, he has thrown a total of 23.2 innings with an ERA of 7.99. We’ll definitely need better than that from him this afternoon.

A farewell to Oakland

It’s possible, though not certain, this will be the D-backs’ final game at Oakland Coliseum. While the current timetable has a stadium for the A’s opening in Las Vegas no sooner than 2027, their least on the Coliseum expires at the end of next year - when, presumably, the series against Oakland will take place in Arizona. What happens to the team after that is still uncertain. While a lease extension is possible, we’ve seen how terrible attendance has been even now. It won’t get better. The smart money is on the team decamping to Las Vegas and playing in the AAA affiliate’s park there [a ground-share with the Giants is another possibility, though that also seems unlikely]

As the most likely scenario is this will be the D-backs final game here, I wanted to look at the D-backs’ record holders at the Coliseum. The team goes into today’s contest with a 10-14 record. and haven’t won a series since 2009, though victory this afternoon would let them leave on a high note. No Arizona pitcher has won or lost more than a single game in this park, and Merrill Kelly is the only man with one of each (mind you, he and Brian Anderson are the pitchers with more than one start). It doesn’t look like Scott McGough will be changing that, as the sole other pitcher on the current roster with a decision in the park. Maybe we should quickly sign free-agent Ian Kennedy, a loser here in 2011?

On the hitting side, Ketel Marte has seen more of this park than any other D-back. If he plays today, it’ll be his 10th appearance here; Nick Ahmed is next with 7, not including an appearance today. The hits leader, however, is actually Luis Gonzalez, who went 11-for-26 across six contests at the Coliseum. Three players are tied on a pair of home-runs, and two of them have a chance to add to their total this afternoon: Lourdes Gurriel Jr and Christian Walker, with Chris Young the other D-back. CY also has the most RBI for Arizona in the park, with five: Gurriel is just behind, one of a handful of players on four RBI. His 1.671 is the best OPS though (min 5 PA). Jason Conti and Danny Bautista lead in SB, with two each.