{"id":44811,"date":"2021-03-22T14:35:15","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T18:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=44811"},"modified":"2021-03-22T14:35:15","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T18:35:15","slug":"diamondbacks-spring-training-20210321-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2021\/03\/22\/diamondbacks-spring-training-20210321-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamondbacks Spring Training 2021 Notes: March 21"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arizona Diamondbacks Spring Training Notes: March 21, 2021<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Here are updates from Diamondbacks spring training….<\/p>\n

Reliever Tyler Clippard received the results of the MRI on his shoulder Sunday morning. \u201cI\u2019m bummed. Disappointed. I have a shoulder capsule sprain and have to be shut down for six weeks. It\u2019s disappointing, because I\u2019ve never had a serious injury, but I do now.\u201d The injury was not something that had been building over time, either. \u201cIt just popped up, and that\u2019s the most frustrating thing about this whole situation. I\u2019m trying to pinpoint what happened, but I felt great arm-wise. I\u2019ve felt discomfort before but have always worked through it. In Maryvale, it came out of nowhere.\u201d The tension in his shoulder was something where he felt like he could rotate his arm and loosen it up. But rotating his shoulder didn\u2019t take care of it. He said it wasn\u2019t really painful but felt weak.<\/p>\n

Clippard will be shut down completely for six weeks. This means that there will be no throwing of any type. He is to rest and recuperate. Thankfully, surgery was never brought up in any way.<\/p>\n

Manager Torey Lovullo sounded just as disappointed as Clippard. \u201cAny time one of your players gets banged up and has to step away for a while, it\u2019s tough.\u201d Lovullo continued, \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating. I feel for him.\u201d He also said, \u201cThe types of conversations I\u2019ve had with him over the past couple of hours haven\u2019t been easy, but we have to face the reality of it. It\u2019s a tough blow. But once again, we\u2019re going to find somebody who\u2019s going to step in that role and get the job done. We have more-than-capable guys who can step up and get the job done. Who they are, we\u2019re still evaluating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diamondbacks Spring Training Player Notes<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Left-handed pitcher Madison Bumgarner \u201clooked like he was attacking the zone in typical Bum style.\u201d He was \u201ctrying to incorporate a couple of new thoughts and ideas\u201d into his approach on the mound. \u201cHe\u2019s going to get big outs no matter what. (Madison) wanted to fine-tune some things and looked really good out there today.\u201d He did several quick pitches, something he wanted to try out. It is something that can goof up timing for hitters. \u201cIt changes the entire package and entire equation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Madison felt \u201cpretty good\u201d about his outing in the B-game on Sunday. \u201cWe tried a lot of new things. That\u2019s why we wanted to use the B-game atmosphere.\u201d He said that since they were \u201cstepping outside of the box,\u201d the B-game was a \u201cgood environment to be in to do those kinds of things.\u201d He continued, \u201cIt felt good. Honestly, it wasn\u2019t that big of a transition, really.\u201d One of those new things was quick pitching. He wanted to see if he could \u201ccount on that\u201d in a game. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to incorporate a lot of different things. Pitching is disrupting timing, and hitting is timing. (I\u2019m) doing whatever I can do to try to be as good as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Quick Pitch<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Quick pitching he\u2019s something he\u2019s seen a lot of guys do, so he figured he\u2019d give it a try this spring. \u201cI played with Johnny (Cueto), who\u2019s the best at it. I feel like I have a good enough feel that I can do that stuff. It\u2019s just that I have yet to do it in a game. I\u2019ve done it playing around on the side sometimes, but I haven\u2019t brought it into a game. Honestly, I think it makes too much sense not to do if you can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know where we\u2019ll go after this, but it\u2019s something I\u2019ll be playing with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Postgame Reflections<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Diamondbacks played an exhibition game Sunday against the Chicago White Sox<\/a>. They held a 4-0 lead going into the ninth but ended up tying the Pale Hose, 4-4. Lovullo said after the game, \u201cIt was a good day for us. We played really clean baseball until the final three outs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The strong performance from some of the \u201csecondary relief options\u201d made the Clippard news sting a little less. This includes Kevin Ginkel, Jeremy Beasley, Stefan Crichton, and Joe Mantiply. \u201cGuys went out and executed. They made pitches (while) knowing that they\u2019re in some heavy competition. I think the spirit of competition brings out a little bit extra in everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor Clarke had \u201cfour crisp, clean innings (of) pounding the zone.\u201d Lovullo thought \u201che did an unbelievable job (when) one pitch behind in the count of locating some secondary stuff that got him right back into the count. That\u2019s an automatic trigger to the hitter. When you see a 1-0 breaking ball or changeup, it immediately puts you on the defensive, because you don\u2019t know what\u2019s coming next. When you feel the pressure of a pitcher landing that type of stuff, it automatically sways the advantage back to the pitcher. Taylor took it from there. He got back into counts when he needed to. It was a complete outing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Main Photo:
\nEmbed from Getty Images<\/a>