Ed Szczepanski – USA TODAY Sports
Despite trading away their best player and top prospect, the Arizona Diamondbacks are only one game out of first place because of their deep starting rotation. Coming into the season, people knew Arizona had a good 1-4 with Ian Kennedy, Trevor Cahill, Wade Miley and Brandon McCarthy, but no one really knew who their fifth starter would be. Many prognosticators thought that Tyler Skaggs was going to get the job; however, the Diamondbacks went with Patrick Corbin, who has been the team’s best pitcher in the month of April.
Corbin is leading the team in a multitude of pitching statistics, which includes traditional statistics (ERA and wins) and sabermetric figures (FIP and fWAR). While young, Corbin isn’t a rookie for this Diamondbacks team; he pitched over 100 innings last season but did not come close to pitching as well as he has this season.
If this is just the start of greatness for the 23-year old lefty, the Diamondbacks are in phenomenal shape for the future, and it also goes to show why the team basically gave up on Trevor Bauer. Fact of the matter is that the Diamondbacks are loaded with pitching, with Corbin being an integral part for the present and future.
Lastly, even though they traded away Justin Upton, I had high hopes for the Diamondbacks this season considering they were one of the unluckiest teams last year, according to my own study. Ergo, it’s really not too much of a surprise that they are winning games without Upton. And if Patrick Corbin continues to dominate every fifth day, don’t be surprised if October baseball will find its way to Chase Field.
