ESPN Chalk's Joe Peta is sharing his season win total projections for every MLB team, including a reason for optimism and pessimism.
Plus, he recommends an over/under play, or a pass. This is the entry for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Arizona Diamondbacks
Reason for optimism: The nucleus for sustained success two or three seasons out (surrounding MVP candidate Paul Goldschmidt) will take the field this year.
Reason for pessimism: The front office is out to prove its opposition to analytics is justified.
A couple of ex-athletes, Charles Barkley and Dave Stewart, made headlines this past winter with anti-analytics comments. Barkley targeted a lot of his comments at Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey, then broadly summed his thoughts as follows, "Analytics don't work at all. It's just some crap people who are really smart made up to try to get in the game."
Although it received much less attention, Stewart, the former Oakland A's pitcher, suggested to the Arizona Republic that then-free agent James Shields might sign with the Diamondbacks because, "He probably sees [Arizona] as a true baseball team versus some of the other teams out there geared more toward analytics."
While on the surface both quotes look like familiar screeds from former athletes against those who "never played the game," there's an important difference. Barkley is a commentator, whose job is to often proffer provocative statements. Stewart, on the other hand, is the general manager of the Diamondbacks and oversees the allocation of nearly $100 million in payroll.
Diamondbacks fans, you've been warned. Then again, how much worse could things possibly be this season compared to last?