With a little over two weeks left until the regular season begins http://www.angelsfanproshop.com/authentic-zack-cozart-jersey , the fringe of the Opening Day roster is still to be determined."WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Diamondbacks Farm TeamsGameday ThreadsDiamondbacks NewsDiamondbacks Game ReportsFang FoodSnake EDTShareTweetShareShareSnake Bytes 3/12: Decisions to be MadeTommy Gilligan-USA TODAY SportsArizona Diamondbacks News[Camden Chat] A Birdland Salute to Adam Jones - Some of you may not realize that what Paul Goldschmidt meant to the fanbase of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Adam Jones was the equivalent on the Baltimore Orioles. The two also just so happened to be teammates on team USA during the 2017 World Baseball Classic. I took a stroll over to the Orioles’ SB Nation site, Camden Chat, for some perspective on the impact of his loss and was not surprised by what I found. Much like none of the writers over at Viva El Birdos can quite appreciate Goldy the way that we can here, it’s also difficult for us to measure the value of Jones the way that the Orioles fanbase can. He was that monumental of a player for them. One of the commenters linked an 8th inning at bat from Jones when the Orioles were locked in a division race with the New York Yankees in 2012. It’s well worth a watch. Jones quickly falls behind 0-2, then David Robertson uncorks a breaking ball near his head, and on the very next pitch Jones breaks a 6-6 tie in the eighth inning with a leadoff solo home run to left field. Truly special.[D’backs.com] Jones to get plenty of playing time in Arizona - How Jones is utilized is of particular importance. The Diamondbacks have done well with defensive positioning under this front office, and hopefully that strength can counteract some of Jones’ defensive decline. It appears that the team still seems prepared to give Ketel Marte some time in center when the regular season begins. Jones can also provide a day off for David Peralta against a difficult left handed starting pitcher.[AZ Central] Adam Jones adds depth, versatility to Arizona Diamondbacks’ roster - [The Athletic] Rosenthal: An intriguing option for Kimbrel; Greinke’s Hall candidacy; Mets’ brewing position battles; more notes - Two D’backs related topics to unpack in this piece. Ken Rosenthal comments on Jones’ free agency journey and Zack Greinke’s case for the Hall of Fame. If Arizona hangs on to Greinke for the remainder of his contract, there is a chance that he stamps his resume for Cooperstown under our watch. Around the League[MLB.com] Goldy on being traded to Cards - BRB. Just going to go bash my head into a wall.[CBS Sports] Miguel Cabrera pulls off hidden-ball trick with smooth pump fake in spring training game - Time inevitably catches up with all MLB players, but the best can rely on their experience as their athletic ability declines. Watch Miguel Cabrera make Ehire Adrianza look absolutely foolish with the most exciting defensive play in baseball, the hidden ball trick.[Sporting News] Are baseball players happy? A personal memory of Marvin Miller - In 1982, Thomas Hauser and Bill Hoffman sent a questionnaire to members of the MLBPA seeking to determine if baseball players were happy. The responses to the questions are still relevant today. Now more than ever, the dominant baseball conversation attempts to analyze and quantify everything a baseball player does. It can become all too easy to forget that there is an actual person behind those numbers. Perhaps we should applaud Adam Jones for more than his ability on the field. Another of the projection systems has come out with its expectations for the D-backs in 2018." for Oxford Fashion StudioI had managed completed to miss the fact that Dan Szymborski’s ZIPS projections had come out with their figures for the 2019 D-backs. In my defense, we were largely recovering from the SnakePitette’s wedding reception over the weekend [her actual wedding having taken place two years ago - it’s a long story]. Since then Shohei Ohtani Jersey , Mrs. SnakePit has come down with the same lurgy I had previously, and I’ve been writing a 1,500-word essay on Richard Avedon’s iconic eighties photograph of Nastassja Kinski and a snake. So the D-backs haven’t exactly been on the radar this week, and I didn’t realize ZIPS were out until BenSharp mentioned it in SnakeZIPS is most bearish. It makes sense that Kelly is going to be problematic in terms of projections, because of his lack of major-league - or even minor-league - experience. He hasn’t pitched at all on the North American continent since 2014, and few pitchers have previously gone from Korea to the MLB, so there are few comparables available. Looking at the expected innings is also interesting [though again, ZWAR is pro-rated to match Jack’s workload]. ZIPS has Kelly down to throw almost fifty innings more than Jack, while Taijuan Walker and Matt Andriese are also projected for significantly higher workloads. I’m not certain if ZIPS “knows” that Walker had Tommy John surgery, or if this is purely based off his previous innings totals. It has him starting 21 games, which would require Taijuan to come back about the end of May, and pitch every fifth contest thereafter. Since he underwent the procedure on April 25th this year, that should probably be considered unlikely, although not quite impossible. HittersOne slight caveat before we get into these: ZIPS doesn’t specify plate appearances directly. I’ve simply added together at-bats and walks: this omits HBP, sacrifice hits and flies Brandon Phillips Jersey , or the times they reached on defensive interference. However, in most cases, that won’t be a significant difference. [Fortunately for this scenario, the gurgling vortex for baseballs which was Jon Jay, is probably not going to be on the Diamondbacks this season...]ZIPS 2019 D-backs hittersHittersPAWARZIPSZPAZWARHittersPAWARZIPSZPAZWARThis is slightly less optimistic than Jack, coming in at a total of about half a win less, once we adjust for playing time. That last is especially important here, because ZIPS appears to be having a bit of a laff, projecting that next year Yasmany Tomas will get - and you might want to sit down, or at least hold your sides in case they split - four hundred at-bats. Which would be... four hundred more than Mike Hazen and Torey Lovullo gave him in 2018. Given ZIPS has him being worth half a win below replacement level, #ImWithJack. If Tomas gets 400 AB for the 2019 D-backs, something has either gone terribly wrong for everyone else in our outfield, or incredibly right for Yasmany. Hopefully the latter, but...Most of the other projections come in within half a win of Jack’s: Christian Walker is viewed in a negative light of that amount by ZIPS, while it reckons Socrates Brito is rather better than replacement level by the same amount. Though Barry Larkin Jersey , again, 489 PA for Brito would probably require the team bus to make an unscheduled diversion to the bottom of the Grand Canyon on Opening Day. [Rule 29 draft, anyone?] Putting the two sets together, we get a total of 33.7 WAR for the team, and with replacement level set at 47.5 wins, the projection is 81.2 wins for the 2019 Diamondbacks, less than a win below the 82 wins actually recorded this season. To me, that feels surprisingly high, considering the team lost their best pitcher (Patrick Corbin) and position player (Paul Goldschmidt) from the last campaign. But it indicates that the players received for Goldschmidt may turn out, in combination, to be worth something close to his value. Gloomy predictions of a 100-loss season might turn out to be unduly pessimistic, based on the projections to this point.