ESPN’s Buster Olney Thinks Highly of Arizona Diamondbacks Rotation, Bullpen
After a busy early portion of the offseason, the Diamondbacks now remain quiet with very few holes remaining on the roster, but the club still finds themselves in the news.
Buster Olney, one of the most respected baseball writers in the industry, published his Top 10 list of team’s with the best rotations and bullpens yesterday and the Diamondbacks found themselves smack dab in the middle at five on both lists.
Here is what Olney said regarding Arizona’s rotation.
It’s a deep group that thrived in 2011 despite working in a park generally viewed as a hitters’ haven. Ian Kennedy finished fourth in the NL Cy Young voting this year, as he learned to use his fastball. And Daniel Hudson demonstrated great command, walking only 50 in 222 innings — and now the Diamondbacks have added ground-ball machine Trevor Cahill in a trade with the Oakland Athletics. Scouts say that Cahill seemed to lose some sink on his fastball in 2011, along with his mechanical consistency, and there is optimism in the Arizona organization that Cahill will work well with pitching coach Charles Nagy. Josh Collmenter is lined up as Arizona’s No. 4, with the No. 5 starter still to be determined, but part of what should make this rotation great is the strength around it — the Diamondbacks have an excellent pipeline of talent on the way, and a deep bullpen, as well.
I agree that the rotation’s depth is its greatest strength. Cahill is a clear upgrade and has much bigger upside than last year’s starter Joe Saunders. The minors are stacked with arms as well with prized youngsters Trevor Bauer and Tyler Skaggs another year closer to being ready.
The Diamondbacks might not be done adding a final piece to the rotation either. Arizona has long been rumored to be interested in signing Hiroki Kuroda and there were whispers last week that they were looking at Roy Oswalt. The club might not have enough money though and could sign a cheap veteran to fill out the fifth spot in the rotation.
Olney also had a take on the D’Backs much improved bullpen as well.
The D-backs have gone from having perhaps the thinnest bullpen to having arguably the deepest. Takashi Saito and Craig Breslow will join a relief corps that already has J.J. Putz, the underrated David Hernandez, Brad Ziegler, Joe Paterson and Bryan Shaw. The health of Putz will be crucial, as it was last year, because his presence as closer creates a structure.
You have to give complete credit to Kevin Towers here. When he became the general manager, he said one of his main goals was to improve this team’s bullpen. Just 13 months ago, this was probably the worst units in the entire game, but because of the trades and signings that he has made, it now is one of the best.
There really isn’t a weakness to the bullpen. The two new additions, Saito and Breslow, both have proven track records of getting hitters out. Hernandez, Ziegler and Paterson proved last season how good they were and when he is healthy, there aren’t too many closers better than Putz. A full season in the big leagues should do wonders for Shaw.
It should be fun to watch this pitching staff in 2012.
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