Spin the Wheel o’ Bumgarner…
Today’s #Dbacks game in Atlanta has been postponed.
The teams will play a traditional doubleheader tomorrow. https://t.co/lx5FqP7vWK
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 24, 2021
We’ll therefore be treating this as the preview thread for both games tomorrow, and will update as appropriate. Each game will have its own Gameday Thread, with the first going up at 10 am, Arizona time. Justin is on the guest recap for that, with Turambar carrying forward his beercap to the second game.
D-backs line-up
Kole Calhoun
Kole Calhoun recounted the foul ball that was caught by a young fan last night, as he attempted to make the catch himself. He recounted how excited he was as a kid in spring training in the late 90’s chasing foul balls and getting one from Tony Gwynn. He told the young man he was going to be all over Sportscenter tonight, to which the kid replied “I’m already blowing up on TikTok”. Kole is traveling with his family and having his kids with him helps him keep perspective. Win or lose, to the kids he still just has to be a dad. He mentioned the kids were most excited to meet all the mascots on the trip.
Kole Calhoun audio [or link]
Pavin Smith
A lot of discussion about the transition to center. Prior to the Washington series he had never played CF at any level in any game, all the way back to little league. It had never crossed his mind that he would play CF but he’s having fun running around out there. He was nervous at first, but had a couple of plays early and that took the nerves off. “It wasn’t as hard as I psyched myself up for it to be”
Leading off frequently is “cool” because you know you are going to get at least five at-bats, so if you make a couple of outs you still have three chances to help the team. His approach doesn’t change regardless of where in the order he hits. But he had to learn to take his time getting to the plate after the pitcher makes an out. He expressed gratitude to older veterans like Nick Ahmed and David Peralta for helping him with the “unwritten rules” and helping him know where and when to be at.
Pavin Smith audio [or link]
Torey Lovullo notes
- He’s impressed with the transition that Pavin Smith has made. They felt comfortable with him on the corners and through the evaluations of his corner work Dave McKay indicated he could be used in an emergency in CF. But he acknowledged it’s fairly rare for a player to step in like that in a position he’s never played before to do this well.
- Tim Locastro is getting his stitches out Monday and will be ‘game ready” immediately after.
- Christian Walker is still only taking cage swings. Next step is live BP but that hasn’t happened yet.
- Ketel Marte is “bat ready” but he’s not fully tested the running yet.
- Joakim Soria will throw to live hitters today, and then they’ll get him off the mound and work on Pitcher Fielding Practice to make sure he’s able to handle those reps
- Nick Ahmed is batting lead-off today, because facing lefties is usually a good match-up for him and they want to get him as many PA as possible