Chip Hale had a decent first year as Arizona’s manager. They overachieved last season and went on to make some bold moves this offseason.
The Diamondbacks started the offseason by out-bidding the entire league to sign pitcher Zack Greinke. They followed that mega-deal by trading former #1 overall draft pick Dansby Swanson and other prospects to Atlanta for pitcher Shelby Miller. They appear to be figuratively swinging for the fences.
Will Arizona’s big spending pay off this season?
How will Greinke and Miller fare at the top of the rotation?
Here is the 2016 MLB season preview for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
2015 Win/Loss Record: 79-83
Key Additions: SP Zack Greinke, SP Shelby Miller, SS Jean Segura, RP Tyler Clippard, RP Matt Capps, RP Cody Hall, RP Sam LeCure, C Chris Herrmann, SS Joaquin Arias, OF Jason Bourgeois, RP Adam Loewen, RP Tim Stauffer & RP Wesley Wright
Key Losses: OF Ender Inciarte, SP Jeremy Hellickson, RP David Hernandez, SP Chase Anderson, C Jarrod Saltalamacchia & C Jordan Pacheco,
Interleague Schedule: AL East
Projected Starters: Welington Castillo, Paul Goldschmidt, Chris Owings, Nick Ahmed, David Peralta, A.J. Pollock & Yasmany Tomas
Projected Starting Rotation: Zack Greinke, Shelby Miller, Patrick Corbin, Rubby De La Rosa & Robbie Ray
Closer: Brad Ziegler
Fantasy Sleeper: SP Patrick Corbin – Corbin was one of the better pitchers in the National League until he needed Tommy John surgery. He missed 21 months and looked good in his sixteen starts last season. I expect good numbers from him this year. He will be the team’s #3 starter, so he won’t have to be an ace of the staff with Greinke and Miller now in the rotation. He could be worth a late-round pick. At the very least, he could be a good, consistent streamable starter.
Prospect To Keep Your Eye On: OF Socrates Brito – Brito had a cup of coffee in the bigs last year. He has speed and can hit for average. He will most likely start out the year in Triple-A, but could be a darkhorse to be on the Opening Day roster.
Team Analysis: Arizona was expected to keep building their farm system to push toward the future this offseason. Well, they came out of the gate shooting for the stars. They signed Zack Greinke to a monster deal and traded some prime prospects to Atlanta for Shelby Miller.
The NL West is a bit top-heavy this year, so Arizona has their work cut out for them. I still have them being a few wins over .500 this year. Their defense is pretty solid, but the back-end of their rotation is suspect. I would have liked to see them acquire another power hitter. Having Greinke and Miller is nice, but I feel like they are a few too many pieces away for the Greinke investment to be worth it. They could have used his money to improve so many other areas. I still think they are a few wins better than last year.
2016 Wins Over/Under Betting Line: 82 (Prediction: OVER)
2016 Projected Win/Loss Record: 84-78 (3rd in NL West)
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About the Author…
Bobby Roberts (otherwise known as Sweetbob) is the creator of ‘America’s White Boy’ and contributor at Project Shanks. His writing has been featured on ESPN’s ‘SportsNation’, Sports Illustrated’s Hot Clicks, Guyspeed, and various other sites. You can follow him on Twitter at @Sweetbob.