Diamondbacks Gameday Thread, #48: 5/22 @ Phillies

Ranking the power rankings

• MLB.com: #11 (last week: #15)
• CBS Sports: #9 (last week: #12) - “They’ve won seven of nine and one of those losses was, inexplicably, the worst start of Zac Gallen’s career. This continues to be an intriguing team that should not be ignored.”
• USA Today: #7 (last week: #9) - “20-12 against right-handed starters.”
• FOX Sports: #8 (last week: #9) - “Most assumed the NL West would be a two-team race; they did not assume the young, speedy D-backs would be one of those two teams. They rank in the top 10 in OPS and steals, have multiple rookies making positive impacts, feature a potential Cy Young Award winner in Zac Gallen and are 1.5 games back of first place.”
• ESPN: #11 (last week: #14) - “Brandon Pfaadt, the D-backs’ highly touted pitching prospect, was charged with 13 runs in 9⅔ innings during his first two starts but bounced back Sunday, pitching five innings of one-run ball against the Giants. D-backs manager Torey Lovullo had a talk with Pfaadt in the wake of those first two outings, essentially telling him he was capable of more and that something needed to be figured out. “He took that as a personal challenge,” Lovullo said. Pfaadt benefited from getting back some of the late life on his fastball, heeding the advice of assistant pitching coach Barry Enright to get his fingers on top of the baseball and throw it more downhill, according to MLB.com. The D-backs need someone to step up in their rotation beyond Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, and perhaps Pfaadt, 24, can be that guy.”

Consecutive series wins on the road for Arizona, and it appears the national media is beginning (finally!) to take notice, with the team breaking into the top 10 on average. Indeed, most of the rankings now have them within a couple of spots of the Dodgers. MLB and ESPN still have Arizona much further back, though the latter does at least have the excuse of posting before the Dodgers got hammered by the Cardinals, losing three of four in St. Louis and conceding 32 runs in the process. But at least they all now agree the D-backs are better than the Padres. Here’s the average standings for the division:

1. Dodgers: 5.0
2. D-backs: 9.2
3. Padres: 17.4
4. Giants: 19.8
5. Rockies: 26.6