Eric Sorenson
So far, so good for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Yes, we’re still in the infancy of the 2017 season but for a franchise which nearly lost 100 games last season and hasn’t made the playoffs since 2011, the early results are unquestionably a welcome and, by many, unexpected change.
The D-backs have already won season-opening home series against the San Francisco Giants and swept the American League Champion Cleveland Indians.
#DbacksWWWWin! pic.twitter.com/8jbXtA7j1g
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 9, 2017
“I think the trajectory is definitely going upward, where as last year it was not,” ESPN baseball insider Pedro Gomez said to Sports360AZ.com’s Brad Cesmat in a recent phone interview.
Gomez believes much of the club’s early-season success is due to first-year full-time manager Torey Lovullo, who he feels will bring stability to a dugout seat which has now occupied three skippers in the past four years.
“He has a tremendous personality,” Gomez explained of former Red Sox coach Lovullo. “He gets along with almost everybody I’ve seen him with. Just a Grade A hire.”
Along with what appears to be a promising young skipper, the same could also be said about new general manager Mike Hazen, who seems to have smoothed out the position left behind by embattled Dave Stewart who was fired after just two seasons.
2017 @MLB run leaders:#Dbacks – 46
Phillies – 31
Dodgers – 30
Giants – 29
Indians – 26 #OurSeason pic.twitter.com/gywLmmG0wf— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 9, 2017
Arizona currently leads Major League Baseball in runs scored, team average and total bases, which off-sets their below-average pitching numbers and statistically being one of the worst fielding teams through the first week of the season.
While the sample size is undoubtedly small, there is reason for cautious optimism for a franchise which has lost its’ identity on and off the field the past several years.
Here’s hoping the promising start doesn’t wilt in the Valley’s summer sun.
