Arizona Diamondbacks Spring Training Notes for March 17, 2021
News from Arizona Diamondbacks spring training with two weeks left before Opening Day…
Kole Calhoun had a great day Wednesday. He was able to do some functional baseball activity outdoors, including taking some swings in the cage. The medical team felt great about his progress. According to manager Torey Lovullo, Calhoun said he “felt great.” Lovullo said that it is difficult to determine a timeline right now, but he’ll announce the timeline when he knows it.
Lovullo saw both Ketel Marte and Nick Ahmed today. Ahmed will continue to get back on his feet and get closer to playing a game. What is keeping him out of the lineup is “a very minor personal situation.” Marte said he felt good, but at this point of spring training it’s better to have him sit out and get closer to full health. Both are listed as day-to-day.
Assessment with about a week and a half to go — Lovullo loves where the team is at this point. “We’re coming together inning-by-inning and day-by-day in a way I’m very pleased with,” Lovullo said. He loves how the coaches and players have responded to each other. The team believes in one another, is functioning as a team, and is playing good baseball together. The offense has stood out to him at times, the pitching has stood out to him at times, and the defense is consistent.
Lovullo is having all kinds of lineup ideas get bounced around, but he’s not going to into any further details until he talks to all the players involved.
Player Notes from Diamondbacks Spring Training
Josh Rojas has “worked really hard at aligning himself to the pitcher’s mound. Not spinning and turning off the baseball. Trying to stay in the big part of the diamond. Working on his direction to strike the baseball,” according to Lovullo. Rojas worked on those for the entire offseason. Lovullo has high regard for his talent. “He is gifted bat-to-ball” and “has a relentless work ethic” to go along with a persistent attitude “that doesn’t quit.” Lovullo said he’s “on a good wave. We’ll expect that to continue. He’s done a nice job.”
Zac Gallen
Zac Gallen pitched 4 1/3 innings in Tuesday night’s exhibition game against the Texas Rangers. His line — six hits, three runs (all earned), no walks, and three strikeouts. One run came in the first. Shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa led off the game with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by left fielder David Dahl. Another run scored in the second. Second baseman Nick Solak hit a leadoff single. With one out, Solak scored from second on a single by right fielder Ronald Guzman. Solak scored again when he led off the fourth with a home run to right field.
After leaving the game, Gallen said, “I felt fine” other than feeling “a tick off on some command things. I was rushing a little bit, but the changeup felt good. The cutter was okay,” but his command suffered from rushing. He was focusing on the changeup a bit more than his other pitches. He wishes he was in midseason form but acknowledges that it’s “unrealistic on March 17.”
It’s frustrating to Gallen when his body doesn’t cooperate with what his mind wants to do. “I know what it feels like — it’s second-nature” for a while and then suddenly “disappears.” He continued, “You start searching for that feeling, and then it can lead you down the rabbit hole if you’re not successful. Knowing where to be in those positions and how it’s supposed to feel — it’s frustrating when that doesn’t happen.”
Post-game Reflections on the Diamondbacks Spring Training Game against the Rangers
Lovullo felt that Gallen was “effective.” Gallen was “keeping his fastball down and working both sides of the plate. I think he misfired on a couple of changeups early that led to some base hits” and some “hard-hit balls.” Gallen recovered in a way that pleased his manager, however. “He made some quality adjustments through the course of his outing.”
The Diamondbacks offense struggled, with their lone hit coming from a two-out single to right by shortstop Domingo Leyba in the fifth inning. “We were missing some pitches in the zone — some fastballs in the zone.” He liked some conversations that were happening in the dugout about approaches at the plate, but it “didn’t seem to translate into productive at-bats.”
Main Photo:
Embed from Getty Images
Players/managers mentioned:
Kole Calhoun, Torey Lovullo, Ketel Marte, Nick Ahmed, Josh Rojas, Zac Gallen, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, David Dahl, Nick Solak, Ronald Guzman, Domingo Leyba
