Fast Walker

 

So uh...not necessarily a pristine go of things from the team that was formerly 1st in the NL West. Since the All-Star Break, the Diamondbacks have won five games...and lost seventeen. Not only have the Dodgers lapped them in the standings, but the GIANTS have lapped them in the standings, and with a 57-56 record, they run the risk of not only falling under .500, but doing so by the time they have to play the Padres, who are 55-58 and rising. Plus, at the moment they're in a series with the Dodgers, and that's not going well either? So what, pray tell, has happened to this team?

Well...it's really as simple as this. Everyone has slowed down. Corbin Carroll is now hitting .277. Gerardo Perdomo is now hitting .267. Zac Gallen now has a 3.37 ERA. Since their big win over the Braves back at the end of July, the D-Backs have scored 5 or more runs...only four times. The way I see it, everybody got hot at the same time, everybody cooled down at the same time. Now Gabriel Moreno's hurt, Ketel Marte might be hurt, a bunch of pitchers are hurt, and Evan Longoria is hurt, as...usual. And even with so many of the same players that got them to 1st intact, everybody's just...slowed the hell down. Which, while understandable, comes at an awful time for this team. 

Pretty much the only player to rise in stock this past month has been Christian Walker. Walker built on a strong June by hitting 6 homers and 14 RBIs in July, and raising his WAR to 2.8, ahead of Merrill Kelly, Gerardo Perdomo and Lourdes Gurriel. Walker has slowly become an insanely good power hitter for the D-Backs, and can now back up his power numbers with more versatility, especially over the last couple seasons. As many players have struggled, Walker is thriving, and is batting .300 this month so far. 

But also plaguing the D-Backs is the fact that, like with the Brewers, a ton of the guys they picked up at the deadline have struggled so far, including Paul Sewald, who's been beat up in both appearances thus far, Tommy Pham, who hasn't hit, and Jace Peterson, who's hitting .231. Even getting Carson Kelly back from the IL hasn't amounted to much, as he's hitting below the Mendoza line and feeling like a drop-off from Moreno. The timing of all of this hasn't helped, and it feels like everything's going wrong for this team at once, which is honestly a sad ending to a season that began so promisingly.

It's not over yet, and the D-Backs do have the ability to rebound and re-assert their dominance, but I'm not sure if they're better than the Dodgers or Giants anymore. This Dodgers series isn't exactly going their way, and the Giants are just getting better and better as they go. The Padres might also be better at them at this point, though the Mariners are having fun with them at the moment. And while I'd hate to chalk the D-Backs up to just being a casualty of a tough division, I also know that this is a season the team can build on, even if they don't make October, and they can work towards building a season and not flaming out as badly.

It still could happen this year, but even if it doesn't, it'd be hard to call 2023 a complete loss for the Diamondbacks.

Coming Tonight: After all that time lost to injuries, it was only a matter of when he'd get back to stymieing AL East batters.