Arizona Diamondbacks News, 5/4: Bear-ly adequate

[SI] Merrill Kelly’s Start vs Cubs Wasn’t As Bad As it Looked – Overall, Kelly picked up 15 whiffs and 12 called strikes. He struck out five batters, and was landing his pitches for strikes around the edges of the zone. He threw 58 of his 92 pitches for strikes — a 63% strike rate that was by far his best in a start this season. The main concern was how quickly that command evaporated, though if he had not been bitten for so many tough-luck hits, he may have had enough stamina to push his decline back an inning or two. Certainly, Kelly’s ineffectiveness this season has been a concern, and his numbers look no better. But if a few more balls went his way Sunday, the outlook might have been different.

[AP] Merrill Kelly’s struggles continue as Diamondbacks fall to Cubs in series sweep – Gabriel Moreno and Adrian Del Castillo each hit two-run homers for Arizona. Merrill Kelly (1-3) allowed six runs and eight hits in 4 1/3 innings. The Diamondbacks had a chance to get back in the game in the seventh, loading the bases with two down. But Ketel Marte struck out swinging against Phil Maton, ending the inning. The Diamondbacks are off Monday before LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (2-0, 3.03 ERA) starts Tuesday night at Chase Field against Pittsburgh in the opener of a six-game homestand.

Team news

[Defector] It’s Ildemaro Vargas Time In Major League Baseball – A career like Vargas’s can’t really be read by scanning his career OPS+ figures and making various distressed faces. Baseball is a job and a baseball team is a workplace, and Vargas’s role within that bigger whole was not necessarily—was, even, necessarily not—about putting up numbers. It was important that his glove worked fine at first, second, and third base was good, and that he always made contact even if that contact did not always amount to much. But Vargas emerged as a smiling, goofy human-sized point of consensus in the ongoing attempt to figure out the value of being what former teammate Joey Gallo described as “an A-plus dude”.

[Sporting News] Diamondbacks’ 34-year-old journeyman with .388 average has been biggest surprise in MLB – After being a bottom-of-the-roster option at-best this offseason, Vargas has become someone the Diamondbacks couldn’t afford to go without this season. He had a 27-game hitting streak to begin the season, and did so on just a $1.25 million salary. Vargas isn’t making much, but he’s been one of the best players in the sport. His .388 batting average has been the best in Major League Baseball, and it’s not just that he’s making contact for singles and cheap hits; he’s actually posting a .673 slugging percentage, the best in the NL.

[AZ Central] 2001 Diamondbacks celebration. ‘Rookie’ team leaders came at right time – For a baseball team that thrived because of a veteran roster that ranked as the oldest in Major League Baseball that season, it’s sometimes easy to forget the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks also relied an awful lot on a pair of relative “newbies” in a couple of rather important positions. One was their first-time general manager, Joe Garagiola Jr. The other was their rookie manager, Bob Brenly. And a case can be made that the Diamondbacks probably wouldn’t have won the World Series 25 years ago without them.

[KTAR] Valley groups, Diamondbacks team up to support brain cancer research in May – Several Valley organizations are teaming up to raise money for a Phoenix-based brain cancer research center during Brain Tumor Awareness Month. Sports fans can also get in on the action on May 18, when the Arizona Diamondbacks host Brain Tumor Awareness Night at Chase Field. The team takes on the San Francisco Giants, and the Ivy Center will be recognized on the field, including throwing out the ceremonial first pitch. [It’s of particular relevance to the team, because Mike Hazen’s wife Nicole, died of glioblastoma in 2022]

And, elsewhere…

[Reddit] [OC] The Fastest And Slowest Sprint Speeds By Position –

[Outkick] This year’s American League might be the worst in Major League Baseball history – 13 out of 15 teams in the American League would be either in last place or tied for last place in the NL Central.  The combined record in the National League is 258-238, or a collective winning percentage of .520. The average NL team is on pace to win roughly 84 games. By contrast, the average AL team is on pace to win 77 games. That’s remarkable. In fact, it’s not just remarkable, it’s historic. Since the introduction of interleague play, the current .480 winning percentage in the American League would be the worst in the modern era.

[USA Today] Handing out MLB’s early awards: Best and worst of wacky opening month – Who could have envisioned that Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora and Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thomson would be unemployed before May? Who could have imagined, in their wildest dreams, that that the Colorado Rockies would have a better record than the Mets, Phillies and San Francisco Giants? How in the world of economics can four of the six highest-payroll teams have losing records: the Mets, Phillies, Blue Jays and Red Sox? It’s been a strange but certainly entertaining start to the season, so why not hand out awards to some of the best, worst and funkiest events of April.

Thrash (2026)

Rating: C-

Dir: Tommy Wirkola Star: Phoebe Dynevor, Whitney Peak, Djimon Hounsou, Stacy Clausen

The actual shark attacks aren’t at all badly staged, with some enthusiasm and in quite a convincing manner. The main problem is, there is never any doubt about exactly who is going to be eaten. Per Joe Bob Briggs, one of the marks of good horror is that anyone can die, at any time. That is so far from what we get here. It’s one hundred percent predictable, and if you are not on the sharks’ hit list, the resulting plot armour is +5 plate mail quality. As a viewer, this realization renders the whole experience less interesting, because there’s no sense of peril. You’re less interested in the central characters, than waiting for the next person who might get eaten to show up.

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