2014 Season Report (120 Games)

A very very dark cloud has settled over Chase Field in the past week, and it will most likely remain there until the end of the season. While the team has not fallen off the map just yet, still sitting at 8th, it's starting to look like the fall will come soon. The Diamondbacks and Braves are basically neck and neck for the final Wild Card spot with Cincinnati firmly in 4th, this could come down to the performance of backups and the pitching staff.

Paul Goldschmidt, leading the team in just about every offensive stat, was diagnosed with a broken hand and will miss 8-10 weeks of the season. The injury occurred during a game against the Indians when Ernesto Frieri hit Goldschmidt on the hand. The length of recovery time essentially ends Goldschmidt's season. The Diamondbacks will move Matt Adams from DH to 1B and look to a number of players, mostly Didi Gregorious, to fill in at DH until Chris Owings comes back from injury. The loss of Goldschmidt is devastating, and no doubt prompted the Diamondbacks to start putting important pieced of their team on waivers.

The only good news is that stud 3B Jake Lamb has been called up to the majors. Lamb shot through AA and barely had time to play in AAA before management sent him up. The team isn't expecting him to replace Goldschmidt, but with Didi Gregorious hitting like... Didi Gregorious he might get a chance to play more often at DH or 3B.

The waiver period opened and closed with little action. The Diamondbacks did manage to win a claim on Oakland's Francisco Rodriguez, but the A's declined to negotiate a trade or pull him back. Everyone the Diamondbacks placed on waivers (Jim Johnson, Joakim Soria, and R.A. Dickey) cleared them, but no trades came about.

The pitching staff is starting to look like a mess, and Gio Gonzalez is right at the center of it. Gonzalez has gone 0-5 in his last 7 games and has failed to pitch 5 innings or more in three of them. Arrieta, the new ace of the staff, has been 1-3 in his last 7 games with all of them very good starts aside from a 5 inning 9R drubbing at Colorado. The bullpen isn't much better with Pat Neshek the only pitcher doing well, and Joakim Soria is now on the DL with Neshek assuming his role as closer.