Introduction
Amazingly, it’s been almost exactly a year since my first Thursday column (I know, who knew that time was linear??). In that piece, I talked about my background both to baseball and my D-Backs’ fandom – including the still-incredible play in which Randy Johnson mercilessly exploded a bird with a fastball. I also mentioned a series of milestones that we might see over the remaining 60% of the 2024 season. Since then, I’ve discussed everything from the changes I would make if I were baseball commissioner to the intricacies of baseball statistics and their application to the Diamondbacks. Now that I’ve officially hit a year writing this column, I thought it was an appropriate time to look back to see what kinds of changes we have – and haven’t – seen over that period both for the team and me personally.
As a reminder, that first column was published on June 6, 2024 when the D-Backs prevailed over the Padres in San Diego to take the series opener. That result left them three games under .500 approaching the halfway point in the season and which put them in fourth place in the division and just a game out of a wild card spot. Sadly, that situation seems to be a theme: for as much change as there has been in the last year, the team still finds itself in about the same place relative to their competitors. Even with today’s odds-defying comeback, the team is still in fourth place in the division and are 3.5 games back from a wild card slot. Of course, the 2024 squad was at the very start of the pivot of their season. Between the conclusion of that game and the end of the season, they would go 59-40, a .596 winning percentage that would get them heartbreakingly close to the playoffs. Ironically, this year’s team is slightly more balanced than their predecessors, but the National League is so deep and talented this year that they may need a similar surge over their final 100 games to give themselves as good a chance as possible of securing a postseason berth.
Milestones
Unfortunately, when it came to the personal milestones I detailed that we might see over that last 60% of the 2024 season, I was (mostly) wildly optimistic on the trajectory of the season. As Jim excellently pointed out in a comment on that first column, Torey’s managerial record is really heavily weighted down by the disaster that was the 2021 season, which makes it extremely difficult for him to ever reach a winning record at the helm here in the desert. He has actually had a winning record since that season (278-270), but he would likely need multiple seasons with winning percentages well over .500 to overcome that deficit. I would love to see him reach that mark given the misery he’s had to endure at times of his tenure and the steadying leadership he’s provided for several very young teams over the past few seasons. I also clearly angered the baseball gods with my praise of Paul Sewald. Between that column and the end of the 2024 season, Sewald pitched to a 5.52 ERA and a 1.365 WHIP and witnessed the fall from grace from undisputed team closer to someone who was easily released at the end of the season. He signed on with Cleveland in the offseason and sports an unsightly 6.17 ERA – mostly because of an elevated home run rate.
Thankfully, Ketel Marte, the heart and soul of this team right now saved my milestone watch from being a complete bust. At the time of that writing, Marte was in the midst of his season-long breakout. He slashed an incredible .307/.405/.617 over his final 75 games of the season and knocked in 63 runners to hit that 500-RBI mark towards the end of the season. He also mashed 24 homers in that span for good measure and reached the 150-mark early this season to accomplish both of the milestones I set out for him. What’s next for the superstar? There aren’t any big personal ones that are within realistic reach for him, but he has some franchise-related milestones that he will capture at some point this season. Specifically, he’s set to become just the third player to reach 1,000 games with the franchise (currently 964) and became the third player to collect over 1,000 total hits as a franchise member today. He also recently passed Luis Gonzalez on the franchise leaderboard for position player WAR and will likely pass him for offensive WAR sometime this season. I can’t wait to see where he goes from here.
I cannot express how thankful I am that I get to do this. It is truly a dream come true to write about baseball for such a wonderful community every week. Here’s to another year!