Arizona Diamondbacks Gameday Thread, #21: 4/18 vs. Blue Jays

Roster moves

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves. The D-backs’ 40-man roster is at 39.

• Reinstated from the 10-day injured list: OF Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (recovery from right ACL surgery)
• Designated for assignment: INF Luken Baker

And there we are. Seven months and fifteen days after playing his previous game for the D-backs, and little more than seven months after having surgery for a torn ACL, Lourdes Gurriel has complete his rehab. That’s a solid two months of the expected schedule, which at the time of the surgery was estimated at Lourdes needing 9-10 months before he’d come back. Particularly of interest, he is going straight into the outfield, despite the common belief being that he would start off at designated hitter for a bit. We’ll see how that works out. I’m also a little nervous about his lack of live at-bats. No spring training and nine PAs against Double-A pitching? I’m sure he has got his cage work in, but still…

Meanwhile, Luken Baker makes an early bit to be the low man on the totem-pole, when it comes to the year end roster Sporcle. His five plate appearances will be tough to beat, though I guess there is a chance he makes it through waivers and ends up back in Reno for a bit. It’s interesting this leaves the team with an empty slot on the 40-man roster. I don’t envisage anyone coming off the 60-day IL anytime soon. A.J. Puk is technically eligible, having gone on there in mid-February. But he’s still some way off. It gives the team flexibility though, and with no healthy position players bar the ones on the 26-man roster, that’s definitely useful.

We’re now four times through the rotation. Like we all predicted, Arizona’s rotation is a top-10 staff, with an ERA of 3.42. However, the peripherals there are a bit shaky. The FIP is more than a run above that (4.47), with xERA – which uses exit velocity and other data about balls in play – almost another half-run higher still, at 4.96. The reverse is true for the bullpen, whose FIP (4.09) and xERA (3.94) are both solidly below the actual ERA. Though James McCann and Joe Ross are still dragging that figure down. Ross is the only change to date, and that’s an improvement on last year: by this date, we’d already seen Puk throw his last pitch of the season…

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