The Arizona Diamondbacks are one of the hottest teams in baseball, compiling a 15–5 record so far through August, a 24–8 mark since the All-Star break, and their fourth straight win with Friday's 12–2 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
Superior talent, analysis, strategy and the experience of last year's World Series run are obvious reasons for the D-Backs' success. But another factor may be how loose manager Torey Lovullo keeps it with his players.
The latest example of that from the eighth-year skipper was demonstrated before Friday's game when Lovullo took batting practice to set the team's fantasy football draft order. Each ball during Lovullo's turn in the cage was numbered and the distance he hit each of them determined a player's draft position, as reported by NESN's Tom Caron.
D’backs manager Torey Lovullo took BP at Fenway to set his team’s fantasy football draft order. Each ball was numbered & the distance he hit each determined position. He hit the wall on Merrill Kelley’s baseball (he goes 1st) and popped up on Joc Pederson’s (he’s last) pic.twitter.com/aohDpCSmAE
— Tom Caron (@TomCaron) August 24, 2024
Lovullo hit the wall at Fenway Park with pitcher Merrill Kelly's ball, so he gets to pick first in the D-Backs' fantasy football draft. He can now boast about more than his 3.63 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 34 2/3 innings.
The manager popped up Joc Pederson's ball, so he will unfortunately select last. The veteran slugger will have to console himself with his 20 home runs, 58 RBI, .292 batting average and .959 OPS.
A major league manager taking batting practice would be a fun enough spectacle on most days. But the stakes of determining his players' fantasy football draft order gave it some more spice.
Lovullo hit .224 during his eight MLB seasons, so putting those draft picks in his hands – or on his bat – might have been a bit risky. Or it just demonstrated that the whole exercise was in good fun for a team that's having a lot of fun on the field right now.
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