Phoenix.BloggersPub

Brandon Webb RHP, 0-0, 0.00 Aaron Harang RHP, 0-0, 0.00

Seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for the thread, so I’m not going to delay posting it any longer. For here we go, folks! The first game of the 2008 takes place in Cincinnati this morning (Arizona time), which is kinda weird. Seems like ages since we had Opening Day at Chase, but it’s only 2005 - and if you remember that game [two words: Javier Vazquez], you’ll know why we’re quite happy to be on the road. Webb gets the Opening Day start, of course, his third for the team though he has yet to figure in a decision. In 2006 he had a chance for victory when we took a 2-1 lead over the Rockies in the 8th, but Terry Mulholland blew the lead. Last season, he lasted only five innings - tied for his shortest outing of the year - but left with the scores level at 5-5, but we won it 8-6.

His spring has been mediocre, with an ERA of 8.50 in 18 innings. But he’s the pitcher I’m least worried about: after the past two seasons, Webb has nothing to prove in the pre-season, and judging by his walk rate [one in those 18 frames], it seems he was pitching to contact. Harang had a good spring, with a 2.86 ERA in 22 innings; more significantly, last season he was 16-6 with 3.73 ERA. He’s been remarkably consistent: his 2007 figures for ER, HR, BB and K were all within four of the 2006 numbers.

Last season, the Reds finished fifth in the Central, with a 75-87 record, but over on divisional rivals Viva El Birdos, they were described last month as, “The most underrated team in the division and possibly the league.” The writer does find the Reds as weak on defense, and that could play into an aggressive running game from Arizona, taking the extra base to the corner outfielders, for example. I don’t think we’ll be taking them lightly, and need to make sure we take full advantage of our pitching advantage in the first two match-ups.

This will be our first chance to enjoy the new Gameday Threads experience, and there are a number of exciting new features - but I’d better not say what they are, in case they don’t work! [For obvious reasons, this side of things has been almost impossible for the techgods to test thoroughly] The auto-refreshing of comments has already been discovered and works very nicely, it seems. If you notice any problems, however, let me know and I’ll send them on up.

The forecast is still questionable, with a 60% chance of precipitation, but they’re saying it’ll only be “light rain/showers,” so hopefully we can dodge the rain-drops. The beer is chillig, the snacks are on the table in the living-room, and the laptop is charging, ready for action. Optimism is unbridled, as we haven’t been beaten in over five months. So, let’s go, Diamondbacks!

Arizona completed their spring training with a 9-4 victory over the
Monterrey Sultanes last night at Chase. The visitors took the lead in
the top of the first, but after Arizona scored three times in the
second, they largely rolled from there on. These stats don’t count
overall, but Upton and Young each had two hits, including a homer;
Reynolds added a three-run shot, a monster bomb which cannoned off the
facade of the second deck in left.; Hudson two hits and a walk; and
Chris Snyder two walks. The roof at Chase was closed during the seventh
inning, in observance of “Earth Hour, but on a worrying note, Jackson
was sent home after batting practice, with the dreaded ‘flu-like
symptoms’.

Perhaps the most encouraging thing, was Micah Owings pitching five
innings without allowing a walk and throwing 52 strikes in 71 pitches.
He did allow nine hits and three earned runs, but it still looks like
his best performance of the pre-season. “Now the real stuff is about to
begin. I’m going to key in on this and take it as a positive going
forward,” he said afterwards. i certainly hope so: with the anticipated loss of Davis,
Owings would be our #4 starter, rather than the #5, while we wait for
DD and Johnson to return. His Cactus League outings have not been what
we wanted to see.

It has certainly been a better month for our
hitters than our pitchers. Obviously, it’s hard to compare stats with
the Grapefruit League, which is generally less hitter-friendly, but we
led all National League franchises with a .297 batting average this
spring, and had an overall line of .297/.372/.476. On the other hand,
our team ERA ended up at 6.15, ahead of only the Giants and Astros, and
allowed more homers than anyone else. One bright point there, however,
is that we also struck-out more opposing hitters than anyone, save the
Mets.

Think it turned out to be less predictable a month than we expected.
Going in to spring training, about the only questions were whether
Tracy and Johnson would be ready for Opening Day. But, while the
Opening Day lineup looks to be exactly as anticipated, we end up with
four men on the Opening Day roster whom I didn’t expect to be there:
Robby Hammock, Brandon Medders, Yusmeiro Petit and Alex Romero. Let’s
take a look at each of them, and see how they got there.

Robby Hammock Though it was known that Miguel Montero had broken his right index finger playing winter ball in Venezuela, as late as the end of February, Melvin was saying “I couldn’t say I would rule out ‘Miggy’ right now.” However, the healing was much slower than anticipated, and he will now go in to extended spring training before heading to Tucson on rehab. The current estimate is he “might rejoin the D-backs before May 1.” As a result, Hammock, who turns 31 six weeks, will start his fifth season in the majors, though he has yet to reach 200 at-bats in any of them - and probably won’t get there in 2008. Melvin said Hammock will play once a week, to give Snyder a day off, but having hit .208/.283/.292 in spring, isn’t likely to see much more action.

Brandon Medders Out of options and dispatched to Triple-A in the middle of last season, Medders looked likely to be waived or traded before Opening Day. However, the Vegas hotel-like implosion of Dustin Nippert opened the door, and Medders had a quietly effective Cactus campaign, allowing 13 hits in 12 innings, with four walks and nine strikeouts. Here’s hoping he returns to the form shown in 2006, when he had a 3.64 ERA in 71.2 innings - he did okay after returning from Tucson late last season, allowing two runs in seven innings, on seven hits. Let’s have no more first-pitch grand-slams, please.

Yusmeiro Petit He gets his chance because of the promotion of Edgar Gonzalez to the rotation, as replacement for Johnson and Davis - the Petit Unit will take over EdGon’s role as long relief, and may end up with a spot-start or two, it there’s a need for any additional arm in the rotation. He had an excellent spring, with a sub-three ERA in 12.1 innings, and an outstanding K:BB ratio of 17:3. Still on 23, he will be continuing to develop, and produced a very credible ERA+ of 103 last season, making ten starts. To quote one scout, “He doesn’t have a power arm but has a plan and the ability to execute.” He has to be good. We sponsor his Baseball-Reference.com page.

Alex Romero Battling for the left-handed bench spot were Romero and Trot Nixon - the latter an 11-year veteran, the former without a major-league at-bat to his name. But it’s the rookie who won out, after hitting .345 in spring, and even the fact he can’t play first-base couldn’t stop him. Don’t expect power from Romero; in 202 career games at Triple-A, he has just five homers, but good contact skills, with a K:BB ratio of 75:52 over that time. He’s still only 24, so as a waiver-wire pickup, claimed by us in January 2007, he’s proving quite acceptable. Loved his reaction on hearing the news he was on the roster:
“I have to go buy a phone card right now.”

Time for the final recap of Heroes and Villains from Spring Training. As always, the sample size here makes this almost as meaningless as the games themselves - that said, isn’t it better to have a good pre-season than a bad one? Our hitters were generally very productive, with six of our starting eight batting .300 or better [Stephen Drew got there right at the end!]. For some reason, those named “Chris” appeared to do particularly well…

• Chris Snyder: .395/.490/.884, 5 HR
• Chris Burke: .371/.437/.710
• Chris Young: .333/.429/.636
• ————————————-
• Eric Byrnes: .246/.306/.404
• Trot Nixon: .214/.297/.411
• Robby Hammock: .208/.283/.292

• Jailen Peguero: 11 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 13 K
• Yusmeiro Petit: 12.1 IP, 13 H, 4 ER, 17 K
• Chad Qualls: 9 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 5 K
• ———————————–
• Micah Owings: 15.2 IP, 22 H, 17 ER, 12 K
• Brandon Lyon: 8.2 IP, 19 H, 13 ER, 3 K
• Dustin Nippert: 10 IP, 24 H, 16 ER, 8 K

With that, we end the dress-rehearsals. There’s now less than 24 hours to go before the curtain goes up on our first pitch of the 2008
major-league season. I can almost taste it now, though the weather forecast for Cincinnati is questionable, with a 40% chance of rain tomorrow. I really hope they get the game in, not least because I have taken the day off
work for the occasion. [Actually, I’d maxed out the hours in my
vacation bank, and if I didn’t take time out, would have stopped
accruing them. Opening Day seemed like as good a time as any to do it!]

I hope you’re all enjoying SnakePit v2.0. I want to thank Trei and his team for making it such a smooth changeover, and for answering all our questions and my bug reports - whether they were for actual bugs or not! There are some really kick-ass features here, such as the new Gameday Threads which automatically refresh and alert you of new posts. I’m in awe of the work that’s gone into this. It is still a project in progress, but it promises to be quite phenomenal.

Couple of things to point out; the ‘rec’ button you see can be used to recommend good posts - if enough people do so for, say, a FanPost, it will eventually be boosted to a special section. If you read something you like, feel free to use it, as a virtual round of applause for the creator. If you find a quick link, video, etc. of interest and want to post that here, without writing up a full story, you can now do that using the FanShots area - Azreous has already done a couple of them.

Today’s talking point. Over at Bleed Cubbie Blue, Al has published his 2008 predictions,
picking us to finish fourth in the division. Do you think he’s still
bitter about the whuppin’ we inflicted on the Cubs in the playoffs? But the real question is: what do you think the order of finish will be in the 2008 NL West.

I’ll see you all tomorrow morning, for the first game of the year. The winter is over; the spring has gone; it’s time for the boys of summer to take over once again. How sweet a thought that is. I think I’ll watch The Natural this afternoon.

Play ball!

W00t! We’re up! Version 2.0 of the SnakePit is now alive! There’s a lot of new stuff on this platform, so please explore the site. Comments are very welcome and the techgods will take them into account - there have already been significant changes, in response to user feedback, since the first rollout at Athletics Nation. But for more information on the new platform, I’ll hand you over to one of the aforementioned techgods.

Hey AZ Snakepit,

Today is the big day. We’ve switched your community over to the new SB Nation sports blog platform. My name is Trei, and I’m here to help you get adjusted to the new home we’ve built for you. If you have questions or trouble with the new system, post a comment in this thread and myself or one of the team (lovitt, sixfoot6 or odacrem) will try to point you in the right direction.

Before we begin, I want to let you know that AZ Snakepit is one of the first blogs in the SB Nation family to make this transition. We still consider this a beta platform, so don’t be surprised if you find a few bugs or if everything isn’t exactly right yet. We hope you’ll take the time to report any problems you encounter at bugreport@sbnation.com.

Please take a few minutes to read about what’s new below. But if you just can’t wait to jump in, here are some quick things to check out:

1. Sign up for your SB Nation network account and claim your old blog accounts
2. Once you’re logged in, press your  Z  key in any thread with new comments
3. Explore your dashboard and setup your profile
4. Read the guide to the new FanPost editor
5. Install the FanShot bookmarklet and post videos to AZ Snakepit from YouTube or images from Flickr
6. Click the “Rec” button on posts and comments to help other people find the good stuff.

What Has Changed

SB Nation Network Accounts - the Big Change

Readers across all of our blogs told us they wanted one account to use on every SB Nation blog. To make this work, we’re requiring that everyone create a new SB Nation network account. In most cases you should be able to keep your old username, but a few of you may have to choose something new, since every other community in SB Nation will be going through this same transition. We tried to be as fair as possible in deciding who gets to keep which name, using a formula that takes into account length of membership and frequency of activity.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to participate on all of our blogs, but we don’t want to encourage everyone to start visiting rival team blogs and initiating flame wars. To maintain friendly communities we ask that you explicitly join each blog in order to participate. It’s a two-click process, but it does means accepting each blog’s community guidelines. Just as you join each blog individually, you can be banned on each blog individually.

You can claim old accounts from multiple SB Nation blogs, and your new username will be retroactively attached to all your old comments and diaries. So now you’ll be able to access all your writings from your single profile page… like magic.

To get started, click here to claim your old blog accounts and create a new SB Nation network account.

FanPosts (the Section Formerly Known as Diaries)

We changed their name. Why? Because we took this major upgrade as an opportunity to leave behind some vocabulary that never made much sense for a sports blog. SB Nation is the network of, by and for fans, and these are the blog posts we make. So we call them FanPosts. When you’re at a bar telling someone to check out your online sports opinions, you don’t have to suggest they read your diary.

FanPosts are displayed differently on the homepage - we include your avatar to give more credit for the time you spend writing great posts. The new post editor has a WYSIWYG view that provides easy formatting. It also auto-saves drafts so you don’t have to worry about losing your work when you compose a post within the web browser. And you can now associate teams, players and games with your posts: these tools promote your FanPosts on our new team, player and game pages - across the entire network.

The new system does not work like the old diary editor. For example, in HTML mode the new editor doesn’t auto-create a new paragraph from two line breaks. But it does offer a whole array of new features. Look for the blinking help button on the right side of the FanPost editor for quick tips, and take a look at our full guide to writing FanPosts on the new platform.

IMPORTANT - if you write your posts in Microsoft Word or some other off-line editor, you will get the most reliable behavior if you cut & paste your post into the HTML view of the FanPost editor. And if you do that, remember to wrap <p></p> tags around each paragraph so your text doesn’t run together.

Visual Redesign

This one is probably the most obvious change of all. Like other major websites working to improve readability for their audience, we’ve adopted a fixed-width layout optimized for the 1024 x 768 resolution used by the majority of AZ Snakepit and SB Nation network users. Use the switcher below the user menu if you prefer the wider layout designed for 1280 monitors. We’ve introduced a top navigation bar with quick links into old and new sections of the site. We also polished a few edges, made some things larger, others smaller and moved a few boxes here and there. More changes and adjustments to come.

Search

We’ve completely replaced the old search engine with a new one. We’re excited to make it easier to find old posts and comments, but we’ve only taken our first pass on the tools we’re offering. We’re focused on making search even better than what you had before, so please know that we’re aware search is missing key features and we’re working on it.

What’s New

Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster

AZ Snakepit now has all the basic information about the Arizona Diamondbacks and hundreds of other teams. During games you’ll see a regularly updated line score, and as the season progresses we’ll track team stat totals and leaders. This is just our first step, so look for us to publish more detailed and archival stats in the future. The best part about all this sports data is that we’ve integrated it directly into the blog so. We now have special pages that aggregate all blog posts written about games, players and teams.

Recommending FanPosts

Some writing deserves more attention and more conversation. If you want to bump a FanPost up to the top and keep it there for awhile, just click the ‘Rec’ link under the body of the post. When a FanPost receives enough recommendations it will make the recommended list.

Auto-refreshing Comments

You no longer need to refresh the page to see new comments. If you’re logged in, new comments will automatically appear on the page every few seconds. When you post a comment, the page will not refresh either. If you want to quickly cycle through all the new comments, you can press the C key on your keyboard. Unmark a new comment after you’ve read it with the X key. And use the Z key if you want to umark comments as you’re cycling through them.

As you use these shortcuts to cycle through comments, press the R key to reply to the current comment. All these helpful keyboard shortcuts are listed at the top of each comments section for reference.

Recommending Comments

Now you can reward those folks who take the time to look up stats and make smart arguments in the comments. Next to each comment there is an ‘actions’ link that you can click to find the recommend and flag options.

Flagging Comments

To help the moderators on a site, we’ve built-in tools that let you flag comments that are spam, trolling or just plain inappropriate. Only moderators can see those flags.

FanShots

Many members of the community just want to post that one link, video, photo or quote, but don’t need a full FanPost. We’ve got you covered: FanShots let you share YouTube videos, Flickr or PhotoBucket photos, quotes from articles, portions of chat transcripts, top 5 lists and simple links. If it’s a video or image we’ll put a thumbnail on the homepage when you post it.

For those of you who are experienced internet hunter-gatherers of Arizona Diamondbacks material, install the bookmarklet onto the links bar of your browser and share FanShots with the community from wherever on the web you find that killer quote or photo.

Archives

It’s much easier to find that post about a certain deadline trade or prospect retro feature. You can browse by year and month.

Avatars

Upload an image so folks can see your custom avatar on your profile, your FanPosts, and all your comments.

Network Profiles

Now that we have unified SB Nation network accounts, your profile will be your central hub for all of your activity on any blogs where you are a member.

Network bar

The top bar stays with you on all SB Nation blogs. It’s a quick way to login and logout. When you’re logged in, you’ll see your avatar and screen name which links to your profile. The icon to the right leads to your Dashboard area where you can edit your settings, profile, account details and any FanPosts or FanShots you’ve published. As we add more blogs to the new SB Nation network, the My Blogs menu will be a handy way to navigate between the blogs you’ve joined.

——-

There are plenty more small changes and additions we’ve made, so please take a careful look around and explore this new system. We appreciate your patience and hope you’ll help us improve the new platform for this and all the other SB Nation blogs.

And in case you missed it, you’ll want to start by claiming your old blog accounts and creating a new SB Nation network account.