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The Arizona Diamondbacks have been the butt of a lot of jokes around baseball for the past few years, and for good reason. There was the ridiculous Shelby Miller trade (and the Toukki Toussaint one before that). They gave Zack Greinke a Brinks truck full of money just before introducing the worst uniforms in baseball. Chief Baseball Office Tony LaRussa barged his way into an opposing broadcast at one point like he was arguing with Twitter eggs. ESPN’s Keith Law wrote a scathing review of the Dave Stewart regime, calling them a “laughingstock.”
Those days might be over. After firing Stewart earlier this month, the Diamondbacks officially announced that Mike Hazen would be their new executive vice president and general manager. Formerly the general manager of the Boston Red Sox, Hazen is the latest in baseball’s current wave of statistically-minded GMs from Ivy League schools.
It will be interesting to see how Hazen fares now that he’s truly in charge — Hazen worked under Dave Dombrowski in Boston, and the balance of power is unclear — but if the early results elsewhere are any indication, Arizona should be just fine.
If you’re looking for Tigers news...
There isn’t any. But Daniel Norris is meeting a bunch of interesting dudes again.
More like Javier BAE-z, amirite?
Javy Baez’s monster postseason has incited jealousy among 29 other fanbases, and this weekend’s NLCS games only fanned the flames. First, Baez stole home on the Dodgers in Game 1.
Javy "The Jet" Baezhttps://t.co/g3RelwaMoA
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) October 16, 2016
Then he turned a nifty double play in Game 2.
.@javy23baez’s baseball IQ on : https://t.co/7uH9fFscf6 #NLCS pres. by @TMobile pic.twitter.com/yZasYX0Je1
— MLB (@MLB) October 17, 2016
Yeah, I’ll take one.
Too bad the Tigers don’t have one of these
Andrew Miller is dominating the postseason, and the Cleveland Indians are two wins away from the World Series. I mean, when you have other players saying this about you...
baseball is so rooted in traditions thats hitters still take their bats to the plate against Andrew Miller even though they're not needed
— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) October 15, 2016
...you’re doing alright.
Of course, the Tigers did OK for themselves as well.
Elsewhere in the MLB playoffs
Corey Kluber might start Game 4 of the ALCS on short rest. Trevor Bauer has Bad Movie Opinions. Jose Bautista is complaining about the strike zone. Devon Travis is out for the season. Julio Urias might start Game 4 for the Dodgers.