ASA’s 2020 Arizona Diamondbacks Preview

2020 ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS PREVIEW

2019 STATISTICS

RECORD – 85 wins / 77 losses

OVERALL MONEY +$810 (based on $100 wagered per game)

RETURN ON INVESTMENT +4.2%

HOME RECORD – 44 wins / 37 losses (+$220)

ROAD RECORD – 41 wins / 40 losses (+$590)

RECORD AS FAVORITE – 45 wins / 33 losses (-$50)

RECORD AS UNDERDOG – 40 wins / 44 losses (+$860)

OVER/UNDER RECORD – 76 Overs / 76 Unders / 10 Ties

2019 OFFENSIVE STATS

BATTING AVERAGE – .252 (13th in the Majors)

OPS (on base + slugging) – .757 (14th)

HOME RUNS – 220 (18th)

RUNS PER GAME – 5.02 (11th)

2019 PITCHING STATS

ERA – 4.25 (12th)

FIP (fielding independent pitching) – 4.40 (15th)

WHIP (walk + hits allowed per inning) – 1.30 (14th)

STRIKEOUT to WALK RATIO – 2.77 (11th)

RUNS ALLOWED PER GAME – 4.59 (13th)

ASA ARIZONA ANALYSIS – The Diamondbacks overachieved last year winning 85 games when they were projected by the oddsmakers to win 75.  Those 85 wins placed them 13th out of 30 teams in regards to most wins which fell in line with their key stats which had them as a middle of the pack team both pitching & hitting.  Arizona won 8 of their final 10 games making a push at the wildcard but fell a few games short.  They traded the ace of their staff, Zack Greinke, to Houston last summer but have replaced him with Madison Bumgarner who came over from San Francisco in free agency.  Bumgarner was just 9-9 for the Giants last year and his ERA was a career high 3.90.  However, those numbers not indicative of his performance as San Fran’s offense was terrible last season and his FIP tells us his ERA should have been lower.  Offensively they outscored their opponents by about a half run per game on the season and their 2 switch hitters both had career years.  Second baseman (played outfield last year) Ketel Marte hit 32 HRs with an OPS of .981.  Prior to last season he had never hit more than 14 HRs and never had an OPS higher than .770.  Third baseman Eduardo Escobar tallied 35 HRs with 118 RBI.  Leading into last season his high for HRs was 23 and he had never topped 84 RBI.  Can those two duplicate their rise again this season or do they fall back a bit?  We would anticipate the latter.  They did add one of the top CF’s in the game acquiring Starling Marte in a trade from Pittsburgh.  Marte is very good defensively, has a career batting average close to .290, and steals an average of 41 bases per year.  We project this year’s Arizona team to be very similar to last season winning slightly above 50% of their games.