By Jordan Long
The Arizona Diamondbacks are the worst team in Major League Baseball this year. They are 20-43. The next team closest to the Diamondbacks is Baltimore who have won 22 games. Arizona could be going for a Major League record for consecutive road losses. They have lost 19 in a row. The Major League record is 22 shared by the 1963 Mets and 1943 Athletics. Arizona could break that when they hit the road from June 14th to the 17th when they are in San Francisco. For their problems, manager Torey Lovullo decided to fire hitting coach Darnell Coles and assistant hitting coach Eric Hinsk.
Arizona was supposed to be a decent hitting team this year. They were 19th in MLB last year with a .241 average. That was going to keep them in games. Arizona’s lineup included Josh Reddick, Eduardo Escobar, and David Peralta. All of them could hit base hits, smack home runs, and drive runs in. It was going to help the Diamondbacks win games.
Unfortunately, the offense isn’t doing its’ job. As a team, Arizona is hitting .231, 22nd in all of baseball. Arizona even has 61 home runs, 24th in baseball. When it comes to doubles and triples, Arizona hitters collected 107 doubles and 14 triples. The doubles are 5th while the triples rank 3rd in MLB. Batters aren’t patient at the plate and swing at pitches outside the zone. Those have equaled strikeouts with 574, 20th in MLB.
Arizona needed to make a change. Whatever Coles and Hinsk are working on in batting practice is not translating into games. Batters aren’t having a good eye on the baseball to smash it out of the park or into the gap for doubles or triples. It was time for them to go before the batting stats are even worse.
According to ESPN, Manager Torey Lovullo said, “I’m not pinning it on one person or one group because we’re all in this together. But we’ve seen 40 days of the type of offensive production that wasn’t meeting our standards and obviously well below average. We’ve seen that trend before and I felt like I needed to address that trend.”
The problems with Arizona aren’t all on Coles and Hinsk. It is also on the pitching. The pitchers’ total team ERA is tied for the worst in baseball at 4.97. Starting pitchers can’t seem to keep them in games. They have allowed too many hits and runs which add to their deficit. The starting pitching ERA is 5.35, 28th in baseball. When it comes to the bullpen, they can’t keep runners from scoring. That takes a close game into a blowout. The relievers ERA is 4.58, ranking 23rd in baseball.
The next person to go for Arizona could be pitching coach Matt Herges. It seems whatever he is telling the pitchers isn’t sticking. When he goes out and talks to pitchers during games to talk strategy with the pitchers, it backfires and they give up runs. If Coles and Hinsk are gone, Herges must go too.
Arizona is on their way to a 100 loss season. Arizona has only once lost 100 games in a year, 2004. They ended up with 111 that season. If they end up with 100+ losses they will search for more answers. It could cost Manager Torey Lovullo his job. Arizona is just trying not to be historically horrible, but they are well on their way especially on the road.
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