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Top 50 Arizona Diamondbacks

The city of Phoenix was awarded an expansion team in 1995 and the thriving desert city would see the Arizona Diamondbacks take the field in 1998.  The Diamondbacks would immediately become competitive and in 1999 they would make the playoffs by winning their division.  In 2001 they again made the playoffs and on the strength of Starting Pitchers Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, they would win the 2001 World Series, which made them the youngest franchise to win the title.

The Diamondbacks would return to the playoffs the following season but would regress in the following years until they returned to the postseason in 2007 and again in 2011.   In recent years on the strength of superstar Paul Goldschmidt, they have returned to prominence and were last in the playoffs in 2017.

As this is a new team (relatively speaking) this list will be very fluid in the years to come and with Phoenix being a vibrant sports town we can see Arizona doing well in the years to come.

Note: Baseball lists are based on an amalgamation of tenure, traditional statistics, advanced statistics, playoff statistics, and post-season accolades. 

This list is updated up until the end of the 2023 Season.

Omar Daal had a couple of decent seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks.  In 1998 he only win 8 Games (with 12 Losses) but had a 2.88 ERA, which was good enough for fifth overall in the National League.  Daal had a much weaker ERA in 1999 but he did win 16 Games that year.Daal had an overall Arizona record of 26 and 31 with 325 Strikeouts.
Chad Tracy played six seasons for the Arizona Diamondbacks and arguably he lands on this list based on the strength of his second and third season (2005 & 2006) where he was a 20 Home Run hitter.  Tracy’s best season was in 2005 where he had 27 Home Runs with a .308 Batting Average, which was good enough for seventh in the National League that year.  Unfortunately for Tracy he never came close to replicating his two good seasons with Arizona and would be relatively mediocre for the three years after.Tracy had 654 Hits while batting .280 as a Diamondback.
Wade Miley was with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the first four seasons of his career, and in his second season, he had his best season in baseball.  In that year, Miley who was still considered a rookie put up 16 Wins and went to the All-Star Game.  Miley was the runner-up for the Rookie of the Year to Bryce Harper.
A star at Kent State, Andrew Chafin was a First Round Pick in 2011, and the Pitcher would first debut for the Diamondbacks in 2014, where he appeared and started in three Games.
Mark Reynolds was certainly adept at hitting Home Runs and as a Diamondback he hit 121 of them including a 44 Home Run campaign in 2009.  His power puts him on this list but his game was not multi-faceted and it came with a lot of deficiencies.    Reynolds struckout in more than one third of his plate appearances and he exceeded 200 three times with Arizona, all of which were National League leading.  His 223 whiffs in 2009 remain a single season record.  Reynolds also made a lot of errors, as he was a league leader in that twice as…
Archie Bradley spent the first five-and-a-half seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks where he has been both a starter and a reliever.   Bradley is known mostly in baseball for his ample beard, which he had since he became relegated to the bullpen but overall (the beard and his role) has been a better fit for the Pitcher.  Bradley stayed with Arizona until he was dealt to the Cincinnati Reds during the 2020 Season.  Bradley had 28 Saves as a Diamondback.
The 2016 Horizon League MVP, Daulton Varsho parlayed his success at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to a Second Round Pick in the Amateur Draft. Varsho first made the Majors in the COVID-19 season of 2020, and after a respectable 2021 (97 G, 70 Hits), the Outfielder/Catcher blossomed in 2022, where he belted 27 Home Runs with a .745 OPS, finishing fourth in Power-Speed # (20.1).  Defensively, he was very good, coming in at ninth in Defensive bWAR (2.0) and was fifth among National League Outfielders in Total Zone Runs (11). Varsho’s stay in the desert did not reach four years, as…
Junior Spivey had a brief career in Major League Baseball with only five seasons, but half of that was with the Arizona Diamondbacks and his only really good season was when he played there.
Eduardo Escobar was traded late in the 2018 season after debuting in 2011 with the Chicago White Sox and playing for the Minnesota Twins since 2012. 
Doug Davis played for the Arizona Diamondbacks for three seasons (2007-09) where he would have a career high 13 Wins in his first season for Arizona.  Davis was not known for his control as he walked a lot of batters (he was the league leader in 2009) but was a constant in the Diamondbacks rotation and would eat a lot of innings.  He won 28 Games with 402 Strikeouts for Arizona.
An All Star as a Starting Pitcher with the Cleveland Indians in 1989, Greg Swindell was firmly entrenched as a Relief Pitcher by the time he arrived to Arizona. 
Carson Kelly appeared in 63 Games over three years for the St. Louis Cardinals before he was traded before the 2019 Season the Arizona where the Catcher had an increased role. Kelly earned the lion’s share behind the plate in 2019 and 2020, handling staffs well, with solid defense.  While Kelly did not have a great bat, he did have 17 Home Runs in 2019.  Kelly missed a lot of 2021 due to injury, but returned in 2022, again playing more Games at Catcher than any other Diamondback, and had a perfect Fielding Percentage. Kelly might not erupt into a great Major…