Saturday, May 23

Welcome to the D-backs Beat Newsletter! I’m Steve Gilbert and I’ve been writing about the D-backs since 1998.

PHOENIX -- With the starters pitching well the past two turns through the rotation, I thought it was a good time to catch up with Jeremy Bleich to get his thoughts on each of the starting pitchers.

Bleich was hired last offseason as an assistant GM to oversee pitching strategy and development. He most recently served as the Pirates' director of pitching, where the club had a lot of success developing young pitchers while he was there. 

Note: Some of the responses were shortened due to space.

MLB.com: What are you seeing from Michael Soroka? It seems like he's really put things together this year.

Jeremy Bleich: I think I would say he has started to put it together, and he has so much more to go, and I think that's what makes it so exciting. This is an accomplished Major League pitcher who has dealt with ups and downs, but fast-forward to now, he feels really good physically. He's a hard worker and he has reinvented himself objectively. The pitcher he was with the Braves is very different from the pitcher he is now. That's a really hard thing to do at this level, and he's done that, and there's still more things that we can untap. He's so smart too, and does an incredible job of filtering the information.

MLB.com: Merrill Kelly has pitched well his last two times out. Was it just a matter of him getting some innings under his belt after missing Spring Training?

Bleich: I think it's combination. Anytime you come off an injury, especially at that time of the year when you don't have a real Spring Training and command is a big part of your game, I think it took him some time to get through his version of Spring Training. What does that mean? Repeating his delivery, and I think you're seeing a higher level of zone presence. We're seeing a floor being installed. I think the ceiling comes when he gets to finer locations, or when the changeup is better that night, or the breaking stuff is better that night, or the cutter is better that night. 

MLB.com: What are you seeing from Zac Gallen this year?

Bleich: I think he's a guy that [opponents have] a really big book on. A lot of people have seen him. There's some new weapons in there, his slider has been a plus pitch, and he's learning how to use it. He's learning how to pitch a little bit differently. I think we're seeing him start to settle in and get back to his best feeling of delivery and repeatability, and I think he is making progress. By no means is he where he wants to be, or where he can be, but I do think we're heading in the right direction. From a human competitor standpoint, I have the utmost confidence in Zac to continue to make progress.

MLB.com: How about Eduardo Rodriguez? His changeup seems to be a real difference maker for him this year.

Bleich: We're seeing a little more velocity in the fastball. The changeup played a role early on, but then we saw teams sort of adjust to it. He has counter-adjusted, I think he got off to a fast start. I think certain teams -- he didn't fail, but you saw some teams sort of create longer at-bats against him, that was their version of punching him. He has counterpunched. I think he's done a good job of trying to beat opponents to their next adjustment, and hopefully that continues.

MLB.com: Finally, what about Ryne Nelson? He had a little bit of a slow start but has seemingly found his way.

Bleich: Nelly has stabilized a little bit. I think we're seeing a little bit of a three-fastball approach -- using his four-seamer, two-seamer and cutter -- that he has done a great job on. He's held velocity throughout his outings, which is not something you see from every pitcher. He's also getting to his in-game adjustments faster, which is always a sign of growth, always a sign of competitive maturity.

When they shifted Brandon Pfaadt from the rotation to the bullpen in April, the Diamondbacks hoped to keep him stretched out much like they did with Nelson at the start of last year.

Nelson got a bunch of longer relief outings to keep his pitch count up, and then he was able to step back into the rotation when Corbin Burnes got hurt.

It's been a bit of a challenge to do that with Pfaadt, in large part because the starters have been pitching so well. Whereas a three-inning stint would have been OK for Pfaadt not all that long ago, manager Torey Lovullo said the most they would use Pfaadt for now would be six batters or so.

So what would happen if Arizona needed a starting pitcher? Would the D-backs be able to stretch Pfaadt back out, or would they need to turn to a starter in the Minor Leagues instead?

"I don't know that answer, but we gotta figure that out," Lovullo said.

The team is hesitant to try and stretch someone back out after they've been shortened, Lovullo said, because when they did it in the past with Randall Delgado and Drey Jameson, both pitchers wound up getting injured.

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