TL;DR: Zac Gallen shone in his final tuneup while a lineup of prospects and semi-regulars walloped a struggling Athletics’ staff.
With exactly a week separating the D-Backs from Opening Day against the Cubs, the team looks about as ready as they can be. Newly-announced Opening Day starter Zac Gallen looked pretty comfortable handling the Oakland Las Vegas Sacramento Athletics. Granted, it’s not the most fearsome lineup he’s ever faced, but his final Cactus League appearance of the year showed why Torey Lovullo and staff chose him to open the season in his final season before entering free agency. He was never really in trouble and his only frustration came when he wasn’t able to meet his own extremely high standards.
Meanwhile, even as the team resolved the happy conundrum of its Opening Day starter was resolved, other positional battles appear to be going down to the wire. The utility infielder/bench spot seems to be up in the air between Garrett Hampson and Ildemaro Vargas – both of whom have had strong spring performances. It was much the same this afternoon as the two veterans atop the lineup did their best Annie Get Your Gun impressions with a combined seven hits, eight bases, and seven runs scored. I do not envy the decision makers who have to choose who makes the roster and who gets DFA’d. Similarly, Pavin Smith continues to defy the doubters (myself concluded) by adding to an impressive Spring Training with another three hit, four RBI day to push his spring OPS to .916. I simply can’t wait for Thursday – and I expect the D-Backs feel the same way.