Phoenix.BloggersPub

Record: 13-11. Change on last season: +2. Pace: 88-74

Quote of the day: “It was obviously not on purpose or anything” — Doug Davis, on plunking Bonds in the first. Buy you dinner if you do it again, Doug.

Good: Barry Bonds comes up with two outs and a man on second, but first base is open. The score is 0-0, 1-0 and 3-2. You send up four of the widest pitches imaginable. Ray Durham, hitting behind Bonds, grounds-out twice and fans the other time. Bad: Conor Jackson is up, with a man on second and first base open. The score is 1-1. Your left-handed starter falls behind in the count 2-0, and you decide it’s best to pitch to leftie Stephen Drew, who’s up next. Two more wide ones follow, for an “unintentional intentional” walk. But Drew smacks a pitch off the outfield wall for a two-run double, that basically won the game for Arizona.

That’s because the Padres didn’t do their homework: for some inexplicable reason, Drew hits lefties at a far better clip (OPS over 200 points higher) than he does righties. Okay, that’s in a pretty small sample size, only 66 major-league plate-appearances against southpaws. However, exactly the same thing happened when he was playing for Tucson last season too: his OPS there was 159 points better against left-handed pitching. I think we just have to write this off as one of those inexplicable things; hope the rest of the National League doesn’t notice and their lefties keep issuing those walks to get to him. Events like last night will get their attention though.

It was a very good game to watch, a lot of fun, and rarely more than one swing of a bat from a lead change. Davis had his best start of the season, with a Game Score of 61; he pitched seven innings, and the only damage was Winn’s homer. [Maybe, by that last time, he should have been more careful with Winn, who came up three times to face Davis with two outs and the pitcher up next. Winn ended the night a triple short of the cycle] The Giants did get runners into scoring positions five of those seven innings, but were 0-for-5 there.

Despite a 3-1 lead, our bullpen persisted in making it “interesting”, with some help from the defense. In the eighth, Lyon allowed two singles, and Drew’s bad positioning as the cutoff man allowed the tying run to reach second with one out. However, Feliz hit a bullet to Callaspo, who was playing third [no way Tracy was getting to face an LHP Cy Young winner like Zito], and they caught Bonds in a…well, run-down is far too active a word for what ensued, so let’s call it a lumber-down between third and home. I recall Mark Grace’s comment about Bazza having the range of a highway cone, and this was an ample demonstration.

The ninth, thanks to Valverde, things were even more interesting. Sweeney led off with a homer to the picnic-tables in center, making it a 3-2 game. After Roberts fanned, Vizquel doubled, again putting the tying run on second with one out. However, Clark proved why he was in as a late-inning defensive replacement, snaring a pop-up in foul territory, over his shoulder with a basket catch. And, after four fingers to Bonds, Durham grounded out to Clark to end the Giants’ winning streak, and run the Diamondbacks’ own to three.

Very little offense outside of Drew: he and Snyder each had two hits, but we only managed six in total (the Giants had eleven). Scott Hairston got the start, with Quentin being given the day off, and went 0-for-4 to drag his average down to the Eucker line. All those predictions of 20+ homers for him are basically no more than dust in the wind now, and more generally, thus far, it does look as if we did seriously over-estimate the hitting ability of our young players, for this season at least. [Between them, Young, Quentin and Drew have four homers in 185 at-bats] While I’ve no doubt they’ll contribute down the line, it looks as if most of our 2007 victories are going to come from our pitching.

Thanks to Goose, npineda, IndyDBack, singaporedbacksfan, DiamondbacksWIn, seton hall snake pit, VIII, dzuckerman, npineda and Muu for their contributions in the Gameday Thread. You’ll be on your own for tonight’s one, since we’ll be at the game, for Orlando Hudson’s Gold Glove presentation and Bobblehead Night. Hope we’re one of the first 35,000 in attendance, not that that should be a problem, given the franchise-low who turned out for Thursday’s game against the Padres: less than 17K. It was barely busier than usual when I left work, though in mitigation, I believe there were other things on involving local sports that night.

Gameday Graph

[Click graph to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Doug Davis, +28.5%
God-emperor of suck: Eric Byrnes, -9.8%

Elsewhere in baseball, I notice that other, far more renowned closers than Valverde had much rockier nights. Trevor Hoffman blew saves in back-to-back appearances for the first time since 1997, allowing four runs in the ninth and having to be unceremoniously yanked. Adding insult to injury, this was the night he was honored for becoming the all-time saves leader: he was presented with a gold-plated pitching rubber and his sons threw out the first pitch. [In another case of an intentional walk mis-firing, the go-ahead run came after he pitched around Gonzo. Why, I’m not sure: Luis is begin to hit his true form - in the past two weeks with LA, he’s batting only .233 (10-for-43), and has seen his OPS slump by over two hundred points.]

And on the East Coast, Mariano Rivera also gave up four runs in the ninth. That was in a non-save situation - but then, after almost a month, Rivera does not have one single save, and his ERA is a ghastly 12.15. Anyone who used a high-round draft-pick on him in their fantasy league must be feeling really peeved right now. The Yankees slump is attributable to much more than Rivera: more often than not thus far (11-for-21), their starters have failed to pitch five innings. In contrast, we’re 1-for-24 in that department - and the only failure came on Micah Pwnings’ injury. But seeing the $195-million NYY team prop up the AL East is undeniably enjoyable.

As noted by npineda: “Bonds played in his 2,879th game. The Diamondbacks’ eight position players have appeared in 2,048 games combined.” That’s no surprise: this average age of our batters this year is just 26.8, lowest in the National League and beaten only by the Tampa Bay Baby Rays [whose starters include Delmon Young (RF, aged 21), B.J.Upton (2B, 22) and Dioner Navarro (C, 23) - Baldelli and Crawford are also only 25]. And I also note that it’s not just our young hitters who are struggling in the pitching-packed NL West:

• Tulowitski, SS, Rockies, age 23, hitting .188
• Iannetta, C, Rockies, 24, .167
• Kouzmanoff, 3B, Padres, 25, .117
• Betemit, 3B, Dodgers, 25, .133
• Ethier, RF, Dodgers, 25, .242
• Feliz, 3B, Giants, 32, .200

Okay, the last-named probably wouldn’t count as “young”, but even at 32, he is the youngest player on the Giants roster with more than 35 at-bats… Finally, Jon Weisman asked me some questions for an article over at Sports Illustrated. They were originally posed to me about a week ago, when we had a 10-6 record. The piece was originally posted the morning after we’d lost our fifth game and Randy Johnson had got whacked about, so I was kinda embarrassed to bring up my optimistic remarks about our rotation. But after three games where our starters have allowed six runs in 22 innings, a 2.45 ERA, I feel a little more justified in my trust of them!

Where were you when Asleep in the Sea played its last show? I was there, at the Trunk Space, amid the sweaty, smelly and hopped-up kids of the mostly under-21 set. They laughed, they cried (wait, no they didn’t) and they moshed (seriously, they did).
It was pretty apparent from the get-go that the farewell would […]

This is a very special date in my life. In the year 1 BD (Before Diamondbacks – I have decided that starting at this point on I will refer to all dates as occurring either before the Diamondbacks began playing or after the team first took the field in 1998) I was recovering from my second reconstructive shoulder surgery. My shoulder had been suffering from bilateral instability and I had a torn rotator cuff and labrum. After the surgery I would have to be in a brace for eight weeks. This was not your average brace. This monstrosity would hold my arm up 60 degrees from my body from the shoulder to the elbow. The elbow to the hand went out 45 degrees towards the front of my body. I felt like a wide load truck going down the highway as my arm hung out impeding traffic. Trina at this time was 9 months pregnant so we made quite a couple. I was as wide as she was deep. Our spatial footprint looked like a couple of Sumo wrestlers without the towel wedgies. During the morning of April 27, 1 BD (1997 for those who are Diamondbacks date challenged), Trina came to me to announce that she had gone into labor and that it was time to go to the hospital. This information presented two problems for me.

I had seen the Padilla Edicion Especial Achilles on cigarbid.com and wanted to try them, but they were only available by the dozen. I hadn’t disliked the other Pepin Garcia cigars I tried so I took the plunge untasted.

Barry Zito, LHP (2-2, 3.70)

Doug Davis, LHP (1-2, 3.27)

Ah, so that’s the Zito the Giants paid an eight-figure sum for. After sucking entirely in his first two starts, he’s thrown 13+ innings of shutout ball, allowing only seven hits over the past two games. That included 7.1 innings against us last week, in a game which we lost 1-0. Doug Davis is going to need to be pretty good, and the offense is going to need to be a damn sight more productive.

Signs of hope in the latter, at least, last night - seven runs was a level of output not surpassed since Opening Day. Overall, we’re scoring barely four runs a game, though that is more than the Giants who have managed only 74 in their twenty contests [that’s 3.7 per game]. A low-scoring contest seems likely for tonight: Doug Davis had a good outing last time, and let’s just hope Drew and Hudson avoid running into each other tonight…until they high-five each other at the end of the game.

Marcus Camby won the award and Shawn Marion came in fourth.  The interesting thing is what Henry Abbott of TrueHoop has to say about it.  I won’t quote the whole thing here because it’s kind of long  but the gist of it (Abbott is quoting 82games.com):  
The 6-7 Marion starts at the small forward position, […]

The NBA announced today that the Denver Nuggets’ Marcus Camby has won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award.

Camby was about the only bright spot on the Nuggets defense all season, leading the league in blocks (3.3/game) and having the most steals (among centers).  While talking about receiving the award, Camby stated that his goal is to make the All-Star Game next year… he thinks that just because you win the award, you should be in the All-Star Game.  He even stated how much of a travesty it is that he didn’t make this year’s game, despite winning the award.  All he needs to do is look at the stats of the guys who did make it & he’ll realize he’s thinking bigger than his britches.

Other 2006-2007 NBA Awards
Suns’ Leandro Barbosa wins NBA’s Sixth Man Award

Ok, so the Phoenix Suns didn’t really leave the game after the 3rd quarter of game 3 against the LA Lakers, but it sure seemed like it.  After ending the game with a 31-17 lead, the Suns virtually disappeared and let the Lakers have their way with them.  The Lakers used a “trapping defense“ w/ guards Smush Parker and Shammond Williams to surprise the Suns and take game 3.

The final Suns score was 95-89 in favor of the Lakers, who still trail 2-1 in the best of 7 series.

Watch highlights of the Suns/Lakers game on 4/26/07

The defense was horrible in the 2nd half, as evidenced by Kwame Brown’s 3 consecutive dunks at one point.  Yes, I said Kwame Brown, the same one who Michael Jordan drafted w/ the 1st pick out of high school for the Washington Wizards.  The guy who’s been invisible for the Lakers so far this postseason, stepped up and scored in double-figures to help offset Amare Stoudemire’s great game.

After scoring only 15 points and playing “team ball“ in game 2, Kobe Bryant went off on the Suns, scoring 45 points in the victory.  He credits the increased output to “being aggressive“, a concept which the entire Lakers team appeared to have grasped - at least for 1 game.

The glaring issues for the Suns included too many turnovers in the 4th quarter and in critical situations, poor defense, and the complete dissappearance of Shawn Marion in game 3.  I’m not sure if he got paid off or what, but he sure didn’t seem to be in the game.  The team also looked lost on offense for most of the game, which didn’t resemble game 2’s “perfection” route at all.

Fortunately for the Suns, whoever they end up playing in round 2 (yes, they will get there) will be just as tired as they are.  All Western Conference teams have lost at least 1 game, meaning every series will go at least 5 games.

Thats right is In The Zona, Arizona’s Premier Sports Podcast, “Ankle Sprain Edition.” Why? because we scored an exclusive interview with the Phoenix Suns trainer and Physical Therapist, Dr. Michael Clark. He is also the President and CEO of the National Academy of Sports Medicine. You can jump right to his interview by clicking here. […]

(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Suns had the game right where they wanted it.  It was 31-17 at the end of the first quarter and you could tell the Lakers were on their heels.  But then everything just kind of fell apart.  Amare had two early fouls.  So did Raja Bell.  Then the Lakers started getting […]