Just when you think we were entering a new era of Arizona Diamondbacks baseball, with less silly statements from the team’s management, think again. Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart took a not so subtle shot at advanced analytics when talking to Nick Piecoro of AZCentral about the team’s pursuit of free agent starter James Shields.
“I think James is a throwback guy by the way he goes about his business and the innings he pitches,” Stewart said. “I think the fact that Tony (La Russa) is here and that we have more baseball people – he probably sees us as a true baseball team vs. some of the other teams out here that are geared more toward analytics and those type of things.
“Sometimes, there are concessions the player will make to be here. It’s the case that he likes what we’re doing with our organization from our end, all we can hope is that there will be concessions enough that he can be here.”
And it begins. Nothing like marginalizing advances in your field in an attempt to make your 98-loss team more appealing, I guess. Then again, the Diamondbacks still don’t have a legitimate starting catcher on their major league roster. Maybe the real mark of a “true baseball team” is going into Opening Day with Tuffy Gosewich as your starting backstop.
