👋 GOOD MORNING
Happy Friday! We made it through another week, and I’m sure grateful you spent part of it with me! I’ll get to the Diamondbacks below, but first, I want to take a quick moment to wish all of the moms out there a happy Mother’s Day, especially to my wife, Meredith, and my mom!
Moms — I don’t know how you do what you do, but I hope you know we marvel in your super powers, and I also hope you have a nice, relaxing weekend. Happy Mother’s Day!
One last note: Remember, if this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up for the newsletter right here, and I’ll keep you in the loop with everything going on this summer! Don’t miss a beat!
If you need a joke to get you through to the weekend: What did the panda give his mom for Mother’s Day? A bear hug!
Let’s run it back next week. On to the show!
Can The Diamondbacks Hang With the Heavy Hitters?
The Arizona Diamondbacks may just be part of the best division in baseball.
That could cause all sorts of problems.
The D-backs are hovering around .500 nearly 40 games into the season, and though their offense continues to appear in the top five of the league in terms of runs produced, the combined pitching staff is almost an exact opposite of that — and I’ve talked about that a few times already early in the 2025 season. It’s not so much the pitching that is setting off alarm bells, though.
It’s the inability to establish any sort of consistency as they near completion of the first quarter of the season.
Diamondbacks Struggling To Separate Themselves From The Mediocre Pack
The Diamondbacks are 20-18 after yesterday’s win over the Dodgers, and winners of five of their 12 series to this point, which includes a split against the Cubs in the first four games of the season.
Some of those wins have come against impressive teams, including the Mets and Yankees, but there have also been some tough losses to sub-.500 teams, such as the Nationals, Rays and Braves. In total, the Diamondbacks are 12-11 against teams with a winning record, and 8-7 against teams below .500.
Arizona has won just six of its last 15 games, though their current place in the standings — five games out of first and 2.5 games out of the Wild Card race — doesn’t have manager Torey Lovullo terribly worried.
“We’re fine,” Lovullo said before Thursday’s series opener against the Dodgers. “Whatever our record is, I think we’re 19-18. We’re fine. But that aint the goal. That’s not where I want to go. fine is not good for me. I want more than fine with this team, because we’ve got a good baseball team.”
That may be true, but in this division, ‘fine’ isn’t going to cut it, especially as the summer begins to turn into the fall.
Heading into yesterday’s game against L.A.:
- Arizona has hit the seventh-most home runs and the fifth-most RBIs in the league this season.
- Starting pitching ranks 24th with a 4.35 ERA, 14th with a 1.27 WHIP and eighth with 192 strikeouts.
- Four of their next five series come against teams currently at .500 or better.
The season hasn’t been without its bright spots. Starter Brandon Pfaadt, who was arguably the biggest question mark heading into the season, has posted a respectable 3.79 ERA and five wins. The much-heralded Corbin Burnes is set to return on Saturday against the Dodgers, and though his 1-1 record doesn’t jump off the page, he has maintained a 3.58 ERA through 32.2 innings pitched, which covers six starts.
Offensively, Corbin Carroll’s 11 home runs are fourth in the league, while Eugenio Suárez’s 10 are tied for fifth, but collectively the D-backs’ +3 run differential prior to Thursday’s game ranked 16th.
Pretty darn mediocre.
My Take: Listen, if we’re comparing year-over-year, Arizona is technically ahead of last year’s pace. The Diamondbacks were 18-20 after 38 games a season ago, so their 20-18 record at the same point this year is, in fact, fine. And I cannot stress enough, it is still quite early to evaluate a team’s trajectory, because we’re not even into the “grind” yet. Teams are still jockeying for position, and Arizona has failed to set itself apart from mediocrity. Make no mistake: This team certainly has the talent to flex a little muscle in the National League, but still needs to find a level of consistency if they’re going to hang around in the division.
Musings From Around (and Sometimes Beyond) The Valley
Dodge That: The Diamondbacks were anything but mediocre yesterday, as Pfaadt shut down the Dodgers en route to the team’s 5-3 win in the series opener. It’s a big weekend for Arizona, which can make up some critical ground on the first-place Dodgers. I’m sure San Diego and San Francisco would be OK with that, as well.
Quarterfinal Wins: Both the ASU and Arizona softball teams won their Big 12 quarterfinal matchups yesterday, advancing to the semifinals today. The Sun Devils will face top-seeded Texas Tech today at 1 pm, while the Wildcats face off against third-seeded Iowa State at 3:30 pm. Both games will be broadcast live on ESPN+ and if they both win, we will have an all-AZ championship game!
Making Moves: The Suns‘ new general manager has his work cut out for him, so Gerald came up with a few trade options that involve Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale. Definitely some interesting reading heading into the weekend!
🧢 Tip of the Hat by Branded Bills
The D-backs jumped all over one of the best starters in the league yesterday. That sure wasn’t mediocre!
