Reviews, Previews, and Ranks: Arizona Diamondbacks
Introduction & Glossary Post Here
The Diamondbacks won 74 games in 2022, well short of a playoff team - but they certainly beat expectations. They are a young and exciting team that will be really important to get right for fantasy in 2023. Let’s have at it.
Pitchers
Zac Gallen
What a fantastic season for Gallen
31 GS, 184 IP, 2.54 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 26.9% K%, 6.6% BB%, 28.6% CSW%, 10.9% SwStr%, 46.7% GB%
Brilliance.
He went on that brilliant run that began in mid-July and pretty much carried through the end of the year:
At the end of June, his stats looked like this:
14 GS, 3.32 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 23.2% K%, 6.7% BB%
And then, from July on:
17 GS, 2.00 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 29.8% K%, 6.5% BB%
It’s good to see that the K% did come up significantly while that ERA was falling. There is obviously going to be some luck involved when you go six straight starts without giving up a run
The story with Gallen is pinpoint command, and has been for awhile. He’s one of those guys that will always beat his peripherals for reasons we can’t fully understand, I think.
All of pitches work, but none of them really stand out by the numbers above. He relies on the command, the unpredictability, and probably some deception in his delivery.
That’s a ton of extension for a guy that is ~only~ 6’2’’. Plenty of movement and spin as well on all of these pitches, so he has everything you want except for the big marks in velocity and swinging strike.
I think he’s a very good pitcher, and I don’t think there’s much of a chance he comes out and just gets shelled a bunch next year - but he does seem like a guy you will be “buying high” on if you add him to your team - and that goes against my philosophy. I imagine I’ll be a little lower on Gallen than the field.
Comps/RankArounds: Shohei Ohtani (very few aces ranked at this point)
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