Arizona Diamondbacks: Madison Bumgarner and his ailing back
The poor start Madison Bumgarner has gotten off to may be explained by his bad back, which landed him on the injured list for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
An awful start to the 2020 season for Madison Bumgarner may finally have an excuse. In his first season away from the Bay, Bumgarner has toed the rubber four times thus far for the Arizona Diamondbacks and the results have been horrendous.
The D-Backs return on investment for the $85M they shelled out for Bumgarner this offseason has yet to appear, good thing there are four more years on the contract to right the ship.
GM Mike Hazen said the Diamondbacks will place Madison Bumgarner on the injured list with a mid-back strain. He is hopeful Bumgarner will only miss a couple of starts.
— Nick Piecoro (@nickpiecoro) August 10, 2020
One has to wonder if the back strain is the reason behind the bad pitching or if the trip to the injured list was done in an effort to rest the struggling pitcher while keeping him off the mound.
If the latter is the case, is there room for Robbie Ray and Luke Weaver?
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Bumgarner does lead the league in a host of categories including hits allowed, earned runs allowed, and batters hit by pitch. He is averaging just four innings a start and has given up eighteen earned runs in just over seventeen innings pitched.
Good enough for a 9.35 earned run average.
His three losses are tied for the league lead, with his pitching mate Weaver, and each trip to the mound has ended in utter disappointment in the early season for MadBum.
After eleven great years with the San Francisco Giants has age, wear and tear, pitching in a new environment, or all of the above, finally caught up with Bumgarner.
While he has never won a Cy Young Award, he has been an 18 game-winner twice in his career. He’s a four-time All-Star with three World Series rings on his fingers and a World Series MVP Award on his mantle.
The Diamondbacks as a team are done for. Sixteen games in, at 6-10, in the highly competitive National League West, the clock has struck midnight.
Next. Marcus Stroman - the smartest player in the game. dark
For the sake of Madison Bumgarner’s season, I hope a couple of weeks rest does his back some good and he is able to get back on track.