2025 Arizona Diamondbacks: Expectations and Analysis

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00:00Let's dive into the Arizona Diamondbacks. Lots to be excited about again this season,

00:04but of course the biggest question will be the player that everyone took in the first round last

00:08year. What you will get out of him? That's Corbin Carroll, who through about three months, George,

00:13looked like one of the biggest busts all time in fantasy. My gosh, what was going on with him?

00:18I know the numbers at the end of the season looked okay. He sort of rebounded a little bit,

00:24but my gosh, 230 batting average for your leadoff hitter. I know we don't look at batting average

00:28that often, but for maybe a guy like that, who was drafted so high, it definitely came around

00:34late, and maybe that'll continue this year, but we'll see. Quetel Marte batting second,

00:39arguably the best fantasy second baseman out there. Naylor comes over, he'll play first base.

00:44Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Jake McCarthy, Eugenio Suarez, Power, and nothing else. Pavin Smith at

00:50DH, although Randall Grichek I know is going to play some. They signed him in the offseason.

00:55Gabriel Moreno, good catcher there, and Perdomo just got signed to a longer-term extension,

00:59although I don't know that he's a huge fantasy asset there, but it's a good team, George.

01:03Good offense, always surprising a little bit. I don't think that there's a huge drop-off

01:10from letting Christian Walker go to Josh Naylor. Kind of the same offensive numbers, it feels like

01:14here, and Walker's been dealing with injuries with Houston this spring, so like it again,

01:20but top two guys, really, are the highest drafted players, and it feels like everybody, George,

01:24and the community is going right back in on Carroll again, just assuming it was a down first

01:28half, and that's it. Yeah, I kind of assume that as well here, that the adjustments needed to be

01:33made. He may have been a little slow with the adjustments. The teams took me off. He just

01:36looked at his swing and figured out how to attack him, and you know, it took him a little bit here,

01:40so I'm not really worried about Carroll. I think he'll be fine, but once again, it's in the back

01:46of my mind. Cancelo Marte had the MVP-type season last year, if not for Shoei Otani. Can he do it

01:51again? All right, I agree with you about Naylor. I think offensively, him and Walker's numbers will

01:55be about the same. Defensively, Walker's an ace, where Naylor may not be. Gurriel was certainly

02:00miscast as a cleanup hitter, you know, but he's a professional hitter. He'll be all right here.

02:04McCarthy, Suarez, you said at power, nothing. Bottom of the line was a little weak, a little

02:09quick here, but they, offensively, they'll be okay. You know, they'll be at least league average,

02:13maybe a tick above league average. I know the humidor is there as well. Pipes down the numbers

02:19a little bit, but still hit his ballpark here in Arizona, so I think this is a good team. Are they

02:24Dodgers good? No, but no one's Dodgers good. I do think their playoff team went all said and done.

02:28I think they'll be in the wildcard race there. We'll take it from there, but I think they're in

02:32the wildcard race, Craig, because of their pitching much more than their hitting. Yeah, definitely so,

02:37and Corbin Burns was the big side in the offseason. Burns will front their rotation now to go along

02:41with Zach Gallin, who's, you know, kind of an ace himself. Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez, a lot

02:47of money spent on him a couple years ago, and Brandon Fadde at the back end of the rotation. A

02:51lot of, you know, folks really think that he could take another step, too, still sort of waiting on

02:55that one, but, George, this is a strong five to go in, and you could make the case, absolutely,

03:01the first two are SP1s. Gallin with some issues at the end of last season, but Burns, to me,

03:07one of the preeminent pitchers in baseball, one of the top off the board in fantasy this year.

03:12You know, looking at that graphic we have up there for the Arizona Dimebacks, and man,

03:15that uniform is terrible. All-star, just awful. I mean, it makes the baseball can't do a better

03:21job than that. Anyway, Baltimore. You know that, right? They're not doing that anymore.

03:27I would hope not. Yeah, the all-star, you wear your own jersey now, that's it. Oh, good,

03:32that's the way it should be. I mean, it's just, it's silly it wasn't that way. I mean, you know,

03:37once again, Craig and I, when I was a kid. Yeah, I believe you, I know why. Who's buying that?

03:43That looks like a jersey I might have worn to my little league all-star game,

03:47all right? You know, a federal league, American League, that's just terrible.

03:50But listen, as a kid, when you didn't get to watch all the teams every week through whatever

03:55package you have, you know, I may have only got to see the Dodgers once on Saturday baseball or

03:59Monday night baseball. Seeing all the teams at the all-star game in all their uniforms was cool.

04:03All right, love that. So I'm glad they're going back to that. I enjoy that. As for the Dimebacks,

04:09you signed Corbin Burns, you got Zach Gowen, who signed young candidate two years ago. Burns is

04:15great. Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Fatt, by the way, I think is someone to watch at

04:19Fantasy. Could be that breakout guy this year, somebody I definitely have circled or highlighted

04:24on my draft cheat sheets there. But it's deep, right? We're not even talking about Jordan

04:29Montgomery, who's got all sorts of issues with ownership there because he didn't want to go

04:34anywhere. He might have been a little out of shape, too. He looks better this spring as well

04:37here. So they're deep. I like what the Dimebacks can throw at you here. They can throw at you,

04:42they can give you a quality start. Game in, game out. You know, I said the offense is good enough

04:47here. I really like what the Dimebacks have done here. If things go well here, you know,

04:52I think they make the playoffs and in a five-game series, anything can happen.

04:57So the relief situation with Arizona is really perplexing here because it feels like they have

05:02three or four potential closers. They used a lot of different guys last year. And whether it's

05:09Martinez on the back end or Ginkle on the back end or AJ Puck, who they traded for on the back end,

05:15I don't know. I kind of feel like that's the direction the Dimebacks may go here.

05:19It's not to say to stay away from this situation with their bullpen because it's very solid.

05:25But I just don't know that one player is going to get 25 saves for this team. It didn't even

05:29come close to that last year. Yeah, and once again, these guys are in the Category 3 for me.

05:34All right. I mean, even if, we don't know what, March 8th or maybe we get more clarity by the

05:39time opening day comes on March 27th, but that may be too late for your fantasy drafts. We've

05:44already drafted here. I mean, there's a reason why, like I said, I keep saying it when it comes

05:49to fantasy closers. I want to draft one closer who I, all right, I think he's going to, you know,

05:54the Clause A type, Devin Williams, one lockdown closer. My second closer will be, okay, I think

05:59he could keep the job. And then you get everybody else. And Puck, Martinez, Ginkle, whoever else is

06:05in there, everybody else. I don't know what you're going to get. Maybe they're closed. Maybe they

06:09don't. Maybe they split it up here. But I don't think either one of these guys, I think if you

06:13tell me it's going to be Puck, I don't think he'll have the job all season. You can tell me it's

06:16going to be Martinez, I don't think he'll have the job all season. I think they split it. I think it

06:19drives us crazy on a game-in, game-out basis. If you're in a daily league, okay, you can just

06:25take boats and try to figure out who's going to close that day. But if you're in a weekly league, like

06:28most leagues are, it's just, it's not going to be fun.

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