Eugenio Suarez is our first half MVP
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It has been an interesting first half of the season for the Diamondbacks. All told, I’d say the disappointments have outnumbered the pleasant surprises. Health, particularly on the pitching front, has dealt the team a series of devastating blows, to the point where they could field a decent staff from the injured list off the 40-man roster
- SP1: Corbin Burnes
- SP2: Jordan Montgomery
- SP3: Tommy Henry
- SP4: Christian Mena
- SP5: Blake Walston
- CL: Justin Martinez
- SU1: A.J. Puk
- SU2: Shelby Miller
- MR: Jalen Beeks
- MR: Ryan Thompson
- LR: Christian Montes De Oca
It’s likely not surprising that consideration for MVP has mostly been on the position player side, simply because they have less been bedevilled by health. While there have been issues, these have been relatively minor. In contrast to the above, the only 40-man position players on the IL are Gabriel Moreno, Pavin Smith and Ildemaro Vargas. There have certainly been some performances to cheer, with Corbin Carroll, Ketel Marte and Eugenio Suarez all chasing career highs in offensive categories. Meanwhile, Merrill Kelly has been a brave little soldier, when all about him have fallen, leading the team in innings, and by quite a long way among pitchers by bWAR.
So who won our first-half MVP poll?
I’m particularly intrigued by the 16% of you who voted “other”… because precisely nobody nominated any other players in the comments. I’m therefore left to guess who they might have meant by this. On the pitching side, Ryne Nelson maybe? His ERA and FIP are both the best among the rotation – especially if you consider only his starts, where across nine outings, it’s all the way down at 2.79. Perhaps Shelby Miller, who decided to speed-run the Redemption Arc story-line, and went from signing as a non-roster invitee to closing games for the Diamondbacks in two and a half months.
On the hitting site, one possible candidate might be Geraldo Perdomo, and I will confess, I should probably have included him in the original poll. For Perdomo has actually posted slightly more bWAR and fWAR than Suarez (2.7/3.1 vs. 2.6/2.5). And that doesn’t even count his off-the-field qualities, where he seems to be becoming the captain of the team. But it appears that it’s not just chicks who dig the long-ball. Suarez’s power surge, putting him course for one of the top home-run seasons in franchise history, propelled him to the top of the poll, with a clear twelve-point margin over Marte. Might it have been closer if Ketel had been able to play in as many games? We’ll never know…
Thanks to all who voted, and I’m sure we’ll be revisiting many of these candidates, when it comes time to choose the full-season SnakePit MVP at the end of the year.