Will Arizona inch toward 80 wins?
Following a 2016 season that saw the Arizona Diamondbacks fail to get to 70 wins, can the re-tooled NL West team push for the .500 mark this season?
According to oddsmakers at BetDSI, the Diamondbacks have been given an over/under of 78.5 wins for the 2017 season. The D’Backs are also listed with 120/1 odds to win the World Series while getting 60/1 odds to win the NLCS.
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After going 69-93 last season and missing out on the playoffs for the fifth straight season, Arizona elected to fire GM Dave Stewart and manager Chip Hale. The team has since hired Torey Luvullo to run the team from the bench while bringing in names like Tony La Russa into advisory roles. Ron Gardenhire has been brought in as a bench coach as well.
Arizona didn’t add much to the roster this season, hoping it can make a run with the talent it has. The Diamondbacks didn’t have a single player rack up 100 RBI in 2016. Paul Goldschmidt put up 95 and Jake Lamb had 91. Both are back to lead the lineup this season. Yasmany Tomas is also back after picking up 31 home runs in 2016.
If the Diamondbacks are going to get to 80 wins this season, the pitching staff will have to step up. Last year’s squad had a team ERA of 5.09 and a WHIP of 1.49. Zack Greinke made just 26 starts last season and had a 4.37 ERA in his outings. He needs to improve on those numbers this year. After a shaky year in the bullpen, the Diamondbacks addressed that by signing Fernando Rodney. He had 25 saves in 2016 while bouncing between the Padres and Marlins. He had a 3.44 ERA over 65 innings pitched.
The Diamondbacks are going to have a tough time making much improvement when they didn’t do much to change themselves from a year ago. A new manager could help, but it still comes down to talent, which the D’backs don’t have a ton of. Plus they play in the NL West, where the Dodgers and Giants are continually in the playoff mix. I don’t think Arizona is going to jump 10 wins with few changes from 2016.
2017 MLB SEASON WIN TOTAL PREDICTION: ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS UNDER 78.5