{"id":761641,"date":"2026-07-26T04:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T04:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/761641\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T04:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T04:39:16","slug":"sb-nation-reacts-results-e-rod-for-the-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/761641\/","title":{"rendered":"SB Nation Reacts Results: E-Rod for the win!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> fans and fans across the country. Sign up here<\/a> to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that pitching has been the Achilles\u2019 heel of the Diamondbacks for a number of years now. The last time Arizona posted an ERA+ of even 100 over a full season, was back in the BC era (that\u2019s \u201cBefore COVID\u201d of course), when the 2019 D-backs were at a modest 105 ERA+. Since them it has been six consecutive years of below average pitching. This season might end the streak: going into play today, the D-backs had an ERA+ of 103, and the raw ERA figure of 4.20 is the lowest for a year since 2018. If there\u2019s one man responsible for this, it\u2019s Eduardo Rodriguez. who finished the first half with a 2.29 ERA, one of the lowest all-time at the break by a D-back.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s therefore no great surprise that he dominated voting for our first half MVP award. Here\u2019s how the numbers came out in the poll.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be interesting to see if Rodriguez can keep it up over the full season. The last D-back to win the end of year SnakePit award for MVP was Zac Gallen in 2022 – I think it\u2019s fairly safe to say he will not be repeating that victory this year. For E-Rod, there is some cause for concern, due to his peripherals all being significantly higher. His first-half FIP (based on K, BB and HR rate) was 4.11, His xFIP (K and BB, with a \u201cnormal\u201d HR rate) was 4.54. And his xERA (Statcast data like launch angle, exit velocity) was a whopping 5.09. While none of that changes what\u2019s already in the books, you do have to wonder if it\u2019s sustainable.<\/p>\n

Certainly, E-Rod\u2019s first start of the second half was a rough reality check. He couldn\u2019t even get through three innings, being tagged for seven hits, two walks and five earned runs. His second outing was better, back to the quality start we expected, although a K:BB ratio of 4:3 won\u2019t have helped his peripherals. The gap has closed a little bit though: Rodriguez\u2019s ERA is up a decent chunk to 2.64, while the peripherals mentioned above are now sitting at 4.16, 4.58 and 4.99 respectively. But there\u2019s still definitely the potential for further regression. If it happens in games the D-backs still win, like the comeback against St. Louis, that would likely be optimal!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2404],"tags":[146,22,75962,4314,19173,5,38,4],"class_list":["post-761641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-arizona-diamondbacks-discussion","tag-arizonadiamondbacks","tag-az-snake-pit-community","tag-baseball","tag-diamondbacks","tag-mlb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116984438007135247","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}