MLB News: The Diamondbacks have an intriguing fifth starter competition
The DBacks’ fifth starter competition; the shortcomings of WAR; Realmuto and Hader’s lost arbitration cases
FanGraphs | Jake Mailhot: The Diamondbacks have a competition for the last slot in their rotation, and it’s actually a fascinating trio. Zac Gallen is the gem of the crop in last year’s swap with Miami, and projects to be a mid-rotation arm. Merrill Kelly is also an intriguing arm who has had good stretches, and he’s added a tick to his velocity. Alex Young has a lot of raw stuff, but he generates a fair amount of whiffs that could give him a jump this year.
Tangotiger Blog | Tom Tango: This is another interesting breakdown of WAR as a framework and its shortcomings, mainly that it is a framework and can have different implementations; it also relies on fielding as a placeholder value where each implementation can apply a different credit to be assigned.
The Athletic | Ken Rosenthal ($): People are rightfully upset that both JT Realmuto and Josh Hader lost their arbitration cases, mostly because the metrics to grade them—namely because the former is a catcher despite more-than-traditional playing time, and the latter has few saves yet is an elite reliever—dinged them in the arbitration process. With the next CBA on the horizon, one would imagine that is on the table.