Diamondbacks head into unknown 60-game sprint

In a normal year, any self-respecting baseball man worth his weight in chewing tobacco or sunflower seeds would have at the ready three words that sum up just about anything that has happened two months into a baseball season: It’s still early.

For the first time in modern baseball history, those words will ring hollow. They will be as obsolete as, well, as chew or seeds will be in this (supposedly) spit-free season.

As baseball embarks on its 60-game blitz, it heads into a season that will last barely more than one-third a normal year. As a result, it will turn convention on its

head. It will create panic and urgency in a sport known for restraint and patience.

It could feel sort of ridiculous. It might also be a lot of fun.

“I think we’re trained as baseball people to not get too wrapped up in any one game,” Diamondbacks General Manager Mike Hazen said. “It’s how we’re trained our entire lives. ‘We lost four in a row, OK, big deal.’ That’s a big deal now. That’s not typical for us. It’s not the way any of us are wired.

“I just think I’ll be curious to see how baseball players react to that – and how coaches and front office react when presented with that dynamic for the first time.”

The season hasn’t even started and the Diamondbacks already seem to be grappling with that dynamic. After getting pounded on consecutive nights at Dodger Stadium this week, manager Torey Lovullo and his players seemed to be trying to find the proper ratio of gravity (knowing the season is about to start) to insouciance (knowing the games did not count).

“We can’t stumble out of the block,” Lovullo said after Monday night’s loss. “It’s a short sprint. We got to make sure we’re ready to go.”

A short season figures to change baseball’s calculus in many ways. It remains to be seen if any of those changes

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could benefit the Diamondbacks.

In the National League West, the Diamondbacks will be trying to chase down the seven-time division champion Los Angeles Dodgers, a club loaded with talent not just at the major league level but in the layers beneath.

An argument could be made that in a short season depth might not come into play as often as in the past, thus giving the Diamondbacks a slight boost.

Another argument lies in the randomness of events: Since anything is possible in 60 games, the Diamondbacks therefore have a better chance.

These theories have problems. In a world in which the coronavirus can quickly wreck a season, it is hard to imagine depth not being meaningful. It could be argued that it is even more important – especially when the normal wear and tear of a baseball season is factored in, as well.

“The hamstring injury that we write off at the end of spring training like, ‘All right, four to six weeks. That’s unfortunate, but we’ll just be getting revved up by then,’” Hazen said.

“Now, you’re missing more than half the season, 60 percent of the season? Those are going to be significant. I don’t believe there will be any insignificant injuries this year.”

And who can say if the unpredictability of things would play in the Diamondbacks’ favor. A random outcome would benefit any of their opponents as much as it would benefit them. Why couldn’t the Giants, Padres or Rockies surpass the Dodgers in a world in which talent or depth is devalued?

The best things going for the Diamondbacks might just be the same as they were in March when spring training was shut down. The Diamondbacks might not match up on paper with the Dodgers -- not in the eyes of experts or projection systems -- but perhaps no team in baseball does. That does not mean they won’t be good.

They have added talent to a team coming off an 85-win season. They might have fewer questions around the roster than any Diamondbacks team in recent memory.

They added an established starter in lefty Madison Bumgarner to lead a rotation that includes right-handers Luke Weaver and Zac Gallen, both of whom could be coming into their own as big league starters. They have another pitcher in left-hander Robbie Ray who has perhaps never looked better – and who says he has never felt better, either.

They have proven, prime-age position players across the diamond, starting with a potential MVP candidate in second baseman Ketel Marte. They added

Starling Marte to play center, Kole Calhoun to play right. No one in the lineup would be considered a weak defender.

“When you look at the starting nine on paper, you feel very good about it,” Diamondbacks closer Archie Bradley said. “Everyone looks healthy. Everyone looks strong. Everyone has been performing well. That’s what excites me the most.”

Their bullpen appears to have a number of potentially legitimate late-inning options, particularly if young relievers Kevin Ginkel and Yoan Lopez can maintain or build off their performances last season.

The Diamondbacks could be good. Still, in a 60-game season, it is possible that good teams will miss the playoffs (last year’s World Series champion Washington Nationals were 27-33 after 60 games). It is possible that bad teams will make it.

It is likely that many things about this year, from postseason entrants to annual award winners, will be marked by the dreaded asterisk.

But it also might be a crazy couple of months of baseball, something unlike anyone has seen before at the big league level.

“I think guys are going to do whatever they have to do to win,” Bumgarner said. “This is a little bit different circumstances but not all that different mindset. We’re trying to win every game we play. So that part of it is not going to be that much different. It’s just a really condensed version of it.”