Phoenix.BloggersPub

A mere 182 days ago the odyssey of the 2007 Major League Baseball regular season began. The Arizona Diamondbacks travelled to Denver Colorado to face the Colorado Rockies. This series contained the hopes and dreams of the franchise as well as its loyal fan base. When your favorite team begins the season on the road it is almost an unbearable situation. Each game seems to last an eternity and you are frustrated by the thoughts that other baseball fans are enjoying something you are being denied. This year I was not about to be left out and so I decided to make the road trip to Denver to open the season with the team attending my first out-of-town Opening Day. There is nothing quite like the pageantry of Opening Day. Everything is new and for that one moment all 30 teams are tied in the standings and have a shot at the play-offs. Once that day is over half of the teams will have lost and their fans will begin wondering whether this one loss is an indication of what they can expect over the next six months. That first game against the Rockies I watched the newly crowned Cy Young award winner struggle on the mound and leave after giving up 5 runs in 5 innings. The Diamondbacks bullpen would come in and allow one run for the remainder of the game and Arizona would mount a comeback scoring 3 runs in the eighth inning to record a win. The Diamondbacks were undefeated and on pace to win 162 games this season (hey, it could happen). I joked around with other fans wondering if this game was an indication of what we should expect. Little did I realize how accurate that joke may become.

TUCSON — Watching Arizona revive its season by taking apart Washington State 48-20 Saturday night, I couldn’t help but be reminded what incredible potential there is for Tucson to be a football town.
It was a vintage night for the sport in the Old Pueblo, and it started before sundown with tailgates all over the lawn […]

Arizona head coach Mike Stoops was treated and released for kidney stones Friday morning at University Medical Center.
He spent several hours there before being released at noon. He plans to see physicians Monday for further evaluation, but Friday afternoon he was at the football offices in McKale Center preparing for Saturday night’s game: a […]

Yusmeiro Petit (22, RHP, 3-4, 5.02)

Ubaldo Jimenez (23, RHP, 4-4, 4.52)

BaseballReference.com preview [opens in new window]

Last game in the regular season. Meaningless as far as Arizona go, and it could end up being meaningless for the Rockies as well, if the San Diego score holds up - that would send the Padres in as the wild-card, probably to play the Phillies, and confirm us as hosting the Cubs in our half of the playoff bracked. Davis has, as widely expected, been scratched from his start, and will throw a bullpen session instead, just to keep his arm fresh. Wouldn’t be surprised to see the B-roster out there again for much of this game. No point taking any risks on our end, and we do not owe the Padres any favors.

After a week where I’ve spent almost every leisure hour agonizing over playoff odds, games in other cities and wild-card tie-breaker scenarios, I’ve decided I’m taking this one off. I may throw a few bullpen comments on the side, but I want to be fully rested and ready to go in NLDS Game 1. As a professional, it’s my duty to be at my highest level of performance, eloquence and sarcastic wit in the Gameday Thread there. So I’ll sit this one out, and get myself mentally prepared for the battles to come…

Yesterday can kind of tell the story of our season - we lose big, the Padres lose close, and we still end up a winner! That’s right, NL West Division Champs!! But it isn’t over yet. Still a lot of games going on this morning that will determine who we face in the first round. My remote’s going to get a workout…

And since I’ve been watching instead of writing this, I’ll hurry up and wrap it up!

• Diamondbacks celebrate in style courtesy of Livo before the game yesterday.. a stark contrast to the night before. Nice article.
  
• AP Recap talks more of the post-season hopes (of both teams) than game action
  
• Looks like the MLB.com writer followed suit with the team’s lack of performance in not writing very much of a recap. Story? What story? Meh.
  
• Another “Recap? I have to write what?” Nick Piecoro doesn’t cover game action in this article either, instead discussing remaining playoff possibilities.
  
• MLB.com notes: Bonifacio’s start, Cirillo’s first playoffs, and BK Kim’s contribution. (Yes, really.)
  
• Cubs fans seem to think their team is coming here for the NLDS, because they were in line yesterday picking up a bunch of tickets too.

Finally, there’s a nice article by Doug Haller in the Republic on this year’s team reaching the playoffs five years later.

Doug Davis’s start was postponed and Petit will start today against Jimenez. Almost game time - let’s do this!

Record: 90-71. Change on last season: +14. Pace: 91-71
Playoff odds: I think this bears repeating

Championship Magic Number: zero!

Quote of the day: “We’re rooting for 17-inning games no matter who plays. And the farthest travel they can get.” — Bob Melvin

It’s kind weird to have our asses kicked - I mean totally handed to us, and just not give a damn. Because the Padres loss to the Brewers, after coming within one out of victory, meant that we are NL West Champions, and nothing could stop that. I think the headline on MLB.com’s preview of today’s game, “D-backs tuning up for NLDS”, goes a long way toward explaining the performance in yesterday’s contest. Though “contest” implies a more-or-less equal struggle - rather than, as here, between one team down to their last throw of a dice, desperate for the win necessary to keep their season alive, and one who were whistling, hands in pockets, and debating who they’d prefer to face in the first round of the playoffs.

That was abundantly clear from the first inning, where we went down in order, with two strikeouts, and the Rockies sent everyone in their lineup to the plate, scoring four runs on three hits and three walks. I think that was a copy of Where to Eat in Chicago tucked into Edgar’s back-pocket, going by this performance: six hits, four walks and five runs in three innings. Jailen Peguero matched the run total, only a lot faster, giving up five in 1.2 frames, though wasn’t helped by Nippert allowing a grand-slam to the first batter he faced. Bill the Cat, Pestileñce and Famine were assigned to mop-up duty, though in the latter pair’s case, this was likely intended to keep their arms loose until Wednesday.

The offense was similarly uninterested, and uninteresting. Two hits for Young and Jackson - the former also had our sole RBI - but Melvin seized the chance to play his B-squad out there for much of the game, and we saw the likes of Hammock, Bonifacio, Callaspo, Quentin and Cirillo all get at bats. I really don’t have much more I want to say about the game at all: it was abundantly clear that we were hungover, on a potent combination of elation and cheap champagne [at least, I hope it was cheap, going by the way it got sprayed around the dressing-room - though see below…]. I’ll be hoping for something at least slightly more competitive, as we don’t want to go into the playoffs utterly flat. I’ll happily settle for a brave defeat, with the Rockies going on to tie the Padres for the wild-card. More on that, the other side of the Gameday Graph.

What? The day we clinch the National League West, and we barely manage a hundred posts in the Gameday Thread? :-0 Yeah, obviously, the big day was yesterday; that’s when all the celebrations were, and I think the team’s lackadaisical attitude rubbed off on us a bit. Still, thanks to those who showed up: snakecharmer, cj060896 [though his comment of “we’re gonna score some runs tonight…5+ runs I’d expect as usual with the better lineups” wasn’t entirely accurate!], andrewinnewyork, azdb7, johngordonma, DbacksSkins, Peachy, Dr Robert, hotclaws, TwinnerA, soco, bcloirao (welcome!), VIII, dahlian and Wimb.

Gameday Graph

[Click graph to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Conor Jackson, +7.3%
God-emperor of suck: Edgar Gonzalez, -30.6%
Honorary not-so goodness: Justin Upton, -10.8%

Today is already well under way, and it looks like we will be facing the Cubs in the first round. The Mets are getting creamed by the Marlins, so if that holds up, it means there’s no way the Wild Card can come from the East; if the Phillies win, they’d take the division, rather than possibly getting the Wild Card. San Diego vs. Milwaukee is in the first, with the Padres 3-0 up. We face the Rockies, with first pitch in about 30 minutes. As expected, Doug Davis has been pulled, and we start the Petit Unit instead. That’s got to be a boost for the Rockies, who need a win and a Padres loss in order to tie for the Wild Card [as noted above, it looks like the most we can now have is a single-game playoff].

We also set up the playoff rotation: Webb, Davis, Hernandez 2.0 and Owings. Said Melvin, “We like when ‘Livo’ follows Davis. That’s the way our rotation has played out, and we want to stay consistent with that.’ Nothing to do with Hernandez 2.0 splashing out for Cristal yesterday and saying, “This is a present for the best manager in the league,” eh, Bob? $300 a bottle drinks will get you a spot in the playoff rotation every time… The Cubs have announced that their first two will be Zambrano and Lilly, so those should be a pair of good match-ups.

Okay, Gameday Thread to follow, though I’m not sure how much I’m gonna be about myself. Gotta get my own playoff rotation in order!

In the final game of the preseason Saturday night, the Phoenix Coyotes fell to the Colorado Avalanche 3-2. Niko Kapanen scored his second goal of the preseason and Steven Reinprecht scored his first, but it was not enough.
Goaltender Mikael Tellqvist stopped 17 of 18 shots before he was relieved by David Aebischer. Aebischer faced eight […]

The Phoenix Suns open Training Camp tomorrow with everyone gathering at US Airways Center meeting the press for the traditional Media Day (at noon). Make sure to check the live webcast of the event at Suns.com.
The Suns will then take a bus to Tucson. I have checked the Greyhound schedule, they should be able to […]

Here’s why:
1) Matt Leinart is still young and inexperienced. He has not proven that he can be a leader, and it seems that he is more interested in Hollywood and fame than he is winning a game.
2) Kurt Warner is the direct opposite. Coming into his tenth season as quarterback, he has two Superbowl rings […]

Edgar Gonzalez (24, RHP, 8-3, 4.73)

Mark Redman (33, LHP, 1-4, 8.67)

BaseballReference.com preview [opens in new window]

With the Padres going down to the Brewers in extra innings, the Diamondbacks have won the 2007 National League West, guaranteed themselves the top seed in the league, and home-advantage throughout the playoffs. Today and tomorrow can thus became celebrations of the fact, with our core players being rested for bigger, more important battles to come. Well, it may not be relevant to us, but the Rockies are still in this thing.

Specifically, if they win tonight, and the Padres lose again tomorrow, then all hell could break lose. We are, depending on how the Mets and Phillies do, possibly looking at a four-way tie for the Wild Card, with two of those teams also tied for the NL East. Hey, we’ve paid our dues in antacids and ulcers this year: let’s kick back, enjoy the last couple of days, and let others stress out for the remainder of the season. Especially, the Padres, who have to decide whether to send Peavy out on short rest, or put their post-season hopes on the shoulders of…Brett Tomko. Rather them than us!

We’ve running the door at the last Romantasy show tonight, down at the Paper Heart. I’ll be lap-top enabled, but probably not until about 6:30pm, so will join the thread in progress. There will be beer. Oh, there will be lots of beer. Will there be dancing girls too, master? Dancing girls. Yes. I decree there will be dancing girls too. Cake, too. And none of that off-the-shelf stuff either…