Phoenix.BloggersPub

And with the first pick of the 2008 AZ SnakePit Fantasy Baseball League…

Baked select…

Alex Rodriguez

Well, that was unexpected. Full report to follow, but comments from managers on the strengths, weaknesses and how they feel about their team are welcome.

Another heroic comeback by Arizona, this time ending somewhat happier for us. A 8-3 deficit in the bottom of the sixth was overturned, and became a 9-8 victory over the Dodgers, thanks largely to the efforts of Chris Snyder, who merely drove in six runs, with a pair of three-run homers - the latter came off a name you might remember, in Mike Koplove. That makes him the second D-back this spring to have a six RBI game, following the one enjoyed by Conor Jackson earlier this month. To put this into context, only three Arizona players have managed it during the past four regular seasons and 650 games: Micah Owings (his four hit, two HR game), Orlando Hudson (in a 15-4 blowout - literally: wind 12mph out to center - at Wrigley in July 2006), and Damion Easley (3 HR vs Atlanta in June 2006).

Randy Johnson got the start for the Diamondbacks, and really only made one mistake, which Andruw Jones deposited onto the picnic tables in left for a two-run shot. Maybe the Big Unit was peeved after Eric Byrnes let a pop fly bounce out of his glove to the previous batter. The first hit off Johnson was a double to the opposing pitcher, after 2 1/3 innings of no-hit ball from him, but he struggled a bit the second time through the Dodgers line-up, and ended up being lifted, having reached his target pitch count (around 64), with two outs in the fourth inning. He’d allowed two earned runs, on five hits and two walks. Nick Piecoro describes Johnson’s outing as, “All in all, not too bad. Certainly some things for him to take way and feel good about.”

In what can hardly be called a surprise, mlb.com reports Johnson won’t be ready for the opener. It’s a somewhat odd article, containing phrases like, “For better or worse, the two lines of Johnson’s progression and the rotation’s solidification may not immediately intersect.” It also refers - in multiple locations - to a pitcher called “Martinez” as the likely replacement for the Big Unit. It appears they either mean Edgar Gonzalez, or I must have missed the blockbuster trade which brought Pedro to the desert. Melvin also all but confirmed Haren will follow Webb in the rotation, with Doug Davis at #3, and “then we’ll see where we go from there.” That would currently appear to be Owings and EdGon.

Another disturbing outing for Dustin Nippert, who has barely had a single credible appearance this spring. He allowed six hits and five earned runs in his inning of work, boosting his Cactus ERA to 14.63; he’s now given up twenty hits and eleven walks in only eight innings. Just one pitcher in the majors has a worse spring ERA in as many innings; Sean Estes, who stands at 15.00. Brandon Medders, meanwhile, worked a scoreless 1.1 frames, with one hit. It’s almost as if Nippert has no interest in making the 25-man roster, going by his lacklustre performances. At the moment, he would likely slip through waivers, untouched by any ten-foot bargepoles. [In a side note, Bill Murphy is now indeed an ex-Diamondback having been taken off waivers by Toronto. Best of luck in Canada, Bill. I also see that ex-Diamondback John Patterson was released by Washington on Thursday]

On a day like today, we could have done with a lineup of nine Snyders, but a couple of other hitters had decent games on a smaller scale. Justin Upton got in on the fun with a two-run homer, and went 2-for-3 with a walk; Conor Jackson also had a pair of hits and a free pass, while Chris Burke continued to impress with a hit and a walk from the leadoff spot. Johnson took his first at-bat of the year and went down on strikes, but did pick Juan Pierre off first-base. Snyder completed his good day by nailing two of the four Dodgers to try and steal a base, while Peguero and Goocher got the win and save respectively, combining for three shutout innings of one-hit ball.

Three weeks in now, and just another week to go, so it’s time to take an updated look at the sinkers and floaters of Spring Training. As usual, we start with the hitters, then move on to the pitchers, and all stats are for games up to and including today:

• Chris Snyder: .353/.436/.912, 5 HR, 12 RBI
• Chris Burke: .378/.472/.756, 3 HR, 9 RBI
• Justin Upton: .372/.449/.558, 2 HR, 9 RBI
  ———————————————
• Mark Reynolds: .209/.333/.395, 12 K
• Stephen Drew: .189/.262/.459, 9 K
• Robby Hammock: .171/.275/.286, 11 K

• Edgar Gonzalez: 11 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K
• Yusmeiro Petit: 12.1 IP, 13 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 17 K
• Jailen Peguero: 8 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 12 K
  ———————————————
• Billy Buckner: 13 IP, 17 H, 11 ER, 6 BB, 8 K
• Micah Owings: 10.1 IP, 18 H, 13 ER, 9 BB, 9 K
• Dustin Nippert: 8 IP, 20 H, 13 ER, 11 BB, 6 K

A quick rant. Those who want to complain about ticket-prices at Chase might do well to compare seats for the other pro sports in town. Such as the Coyotes; we thought about going to tomorrow night’s game in Glendale, since the Hanson brothers, from Slapshot will be there. However, we discovered that if you would like an actual seat - as opposed to standing room only - the cheapest tickets available through their site are $76.35. Plus a $5.75 “Convenience Charge”. And a $3.65 “Building Facility Charge”. As Mrs. SnakePit put it, “We like the Hansons, but not that much.” Instead, we’ll go and see Doomsday, in which Glasgow is a post-apocalyptic, disease-infested wasteland, populated by mindless zombies and violent psychopaths. Must be a documentary.

David Gassko takes a look at Batted balls and park effects over at the Hardball Times, and it turns out that parks affect more than just runs scored. For example, Petco is very K-friendly - 3rd best in the majors - while Chase is much less so, being 26th. If you adjust the strikeout numbers for Peavy and Webb to take this into account, Peavy fanned 222 last year, and Webb 209, compared to the raw figures of 240 and 194. On the hitting front, Chase did a good job of suppressing singles, but on outfield flies, doubles were 8% above average and triples a monstrous 42% higher than normal, over the past five years. Homers were also up 15%, verifying the belief that this is a hitter-friendly park; similar results applied to line-drives. Looks like our outfield trio will need all their speed this year.

Our migration to v2.0 of the site is now scheduled, and will take place some time on Sunday March 30th. I kinda figured it would make sense to do it on an off-day, and at the end of Spring Training seems an appropriate point at which to do it. I don’t have an exact time for the changeover yet, but from what I’ve seen on the other sites, there will likely be a couple of hours of downtime, while the server pixies redecorate our lodgings here. It will then spring back up, with all content, etc. present once again. Thereby goes the theory. If it’s anything like the migration at work, you will instead et a message that we are experiencing heavy call volumes and that a technical support representative will be with you shortly. But I have rather more faith in Trei and the new platform!

Finally, just for amusement, check out Minors Moniker Madness, in which 64 of the most unusual names in the minor-leagues go head-to-head with each other. Couple of names I recognise there, including Clint Goocher and Noochie Varner, though I have to say, they pale beside the likes of Zechry Zinicola or McyQuin Lora. Today’s talking point What are your favorite names for baseball players, past or present? Or, indeed any famous individuals?

For those unfamiliar with the concept, a lolcat is, according to Wikipedia, “an image combining a photograph of an animal, most frequently a cat, with a humorous and idiosyncratic caption in (often) broken English referred to as Kitty Pidgin, or lolspeak.” It was hotclaws who introduced me to the world of cat macros, as they are also known, and it’s become a source of great amusement to myself and Mrs. SnakePit ever since. Perhaps the central fount for such things is icanhascheezburger.com, where endless hours can be spent perusing the archives of cuteness, weirdness and lolcattery.

However, it strikes me that an opportunity is being missed here. There is a vast archive of photos of our D-backs, which can similarly be co-opted, captioned and turned into what should be called lolbacks. Now, given my somewhat cynical and sarcastic nature, these will likely be somewhat different in tone from the traditional lolcats: we see the Diamondbacks as hardened warriors, cast from burnished bronze, rather than cute little animals in situations that potentially endanger their dignity. That said, please find below my humble first efforts in this area. Other submissions are, of course, greatly welcome.

There. That’s got that out of the way. What have our team been up to since I last wrote anything significant? “Losing,” would be the succinct and basically accurate answer, as we dropped two more spring training games, first 7-4 to the Mariners last night, and then bravely coming back from a 7-0 deficit against the Rangers this afternoon, before finally falling by the odd run in fifteen.

To take the latter first, we’ve already documented the growing concern about Owings: six hits and five earned runs in only four innings is cause for concern, boosting his spring ERA to 11.32. However, he did suffer from some bad luck, and got significantly better as the game went on - he retired the final seven batters that he faced. It was also good to see that he only walked one Mariner, and that was the second hitter he faced. Said Owings, “I had to get through a few things and then the third and fourth is more my type of game. Something for me to key in on and build off of.” I certainly hope that’s the case. Curiously, Owings also batted for himself, even though the DH was available: but his spring isn’t going much better at the plate than on the mound. His 0-for-2 means he is now 2-for-10, with no extra-base hits, RBI or walks.

Elsewhere in the game, good outings were had by the two younger members of our outfield. Chris Young was 2-for-2 with two walks, while Justin Upton went 3-for-3. Between them, they had the majority of Arizona’s nine hits: the third man in the outfield, Eric Byrnes, drew a couple of walks too, but Chris Snyder went 0-for-4 with three K’s - his spring average is still a healthy .323 though. After Owings left, Gutierrez and Petit each worked two innings: the former allowed a pair of unearned runs thanks to an Upton gaffe, while Petit allowed just one single in two innings, fanning three Mariners. His 17 K’s in 12.1 innings, now leads the team.

Today’s game saw a somewhat unexpected starter in Billy Buckner, in order to give Bob Melvin and his team a good look at the pitcher, who allowed five runs in four innings, on four hits and two walks. He’ll likely start the season in Tucson, but worth repeating Melvin’s scouting report in fill: “He’s got some weapons. He’s got a real good curveball. He was burned on the changeup again, which I think is going to be a good pitch for him. He’s going to have to mix his pitches up when he falls behind and gets a little more predictable. Maybe he doesn’t quite have the fastball to get away with it when he’s behind, but he has a lot of his secondary pitches that he can throw for strikes as well.”

Scheduled starter Brandon Webb, meanwhile, appeared against the White Sox minor-leaguers, and whizzed through six innings in just seventy pitches, so ended up completing his workout with fifteen more pitches in the bullpen. He fanned five, walked two and gave up two runs, but it didn’t sound like the Sox prospects had many good hacks. “I was keeping the ball down for the most part and getting ahead of basically every hitter. That was good. I just basically threw a lot of fastballs. If I’d gone deeper in the count, I probably would have had more time to get some more changeups or curveballs in… It was a lot of PFPs [pitcher’s fielding practice] over there… Covering first like non-stop. Which is a good thing. I’ll take it,” said Webb afterwards.

Back on the main stage, we got to see what Trot Nixon could do at first-base, making the first start of what I presume is his entire professional career there. Error-free according to the box-score, but that doesn’t say much, either way. He went 1-for-3 there, and it was generally a good day for the offense, who had 16 hits, more than twice as many as the opposition [We were undone by efficiency: we left ten men on base, the Rangers a paltry two] Chris Young had another good outing, 3-for-5 with two RBI and a homer, to lift his spring average above .300. Alex Romero had a three-hit day two, and Jesus Mercham was a perfect 2-for-2; he leads all D-backs in batting average with 15 or more at-bats, having gone 16-for-32 this spring.

Buckner was followed to the mound by Qualls, Lyon, Peña, Robertson and Rosales. They threw five combined innings, with just three hits and a walk, but the Rangers scored three more time, in part thanks to a fielding error by Romero. Lyon and Peña both threw perfect innings, which is good to see: Robertson gave up a homer, which proved to be the final margin of victory, though despite fifteen runs being scored, the game was still completed in a surprisingly-brisk 2:33.

Good interview with Melvin, where he talks about the successes and disappointments of spring training this far: “Results and record-wise, it doesn’t look the greatest right now, but I think we’re accomplishing what we need to accomplish.” He also discusses Randy Johnson, the pitching prospects he has got to see, Conor Jackson, and the competitive division we’re in, saying “Top to bottom, I might be biased, but I think this could be the toughest division in baseball.” I don’t think there is too much bias necessary there: few other divisions can sport four teams that genuinely can say they are contenders.

Well, looks like I will not be able to make it to my own Fantasy Baseball Draft on Saturday. I will be drafting, just in another sense, as our season-ticket consortium will be picking which games we go to, beginning at 1:30pm on Saturday. I’ll get to be there for the first round at most, since that begins at 1pm, so I will get to wave the starting flag, and then must bail. I will have to spend most of Saturday morning working on my autodraft list, to ensure I do not return to any unexpected surprises, such as having picked Barry Bonds or Russ Ortiz… I see cavscout has suggested bumping the draft earlier, but that would cause more problems for some (such as snakecharmer) who are busy on Saturday mornings. Sunday is, indeed, Easter and we’re off to Maryvale to see AZ vs. MIL, so that’s basically out. I think we’ll just leave it and let the chips - and the injured players - fall where they may…

And, finally, a quick plug for the bullpen community projections, which have been lightly trafficked so far. More predictions are very welcome there, to come with a better consensus of what to expect from our ‘pen.

Today’s comment starter Kent Somers writes about the growing appeal of watching sports from home rather than at the stadium. What do you thing? What are the advantages of each? Are there certain sports that are great live, but suck on TV, or the other way round?

Tonight’s game is on TV, on Fox Sports AZ, as well as mlb.tv. I’m at The Sets for our open-mic comedy show, but if I lean back and squint, I can see the TV where the game is playing. Of course, I could just move seats across the bar, but to watch the game, I’d basically have to turn my back on comedians. Which would not be nice. But we’ll see: if anyone else feels like commenting, have a thread. Tonight’s lineup:

• Young, CF .238
• Jackson, 1B .326
• Hudson, 2B .355
• Byrnes, LF .344
• Snyder, C .370
• Reynolds, 3B .222
• Drew, SS .194
• Upton, RF .297
• Owings, P

Stats are the spring training ones so far. I think I’d be phenomenally happy with about five of those batting averages in the regular season. Young, Reynolds and - it seems almost inevitably - Drew, could do with pulling their socks up. But it basically looks like a full-strength lineup for the D-backs tonight.

Miguel Batista, Vicente Padilla, Kiko Calero, Alex Cintron and Ubaldo Jimenez

When you think about baseball, you know it is America’s pastime. However, close to 30% of all of today’s Major Leaguers come from Latin countries. The greatest number of those players come from the Dominican Republic, followed by Venezuela and Puerto Rico. The rest hail from Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua, and Columbia. History documents that the first Latino ball player to make it to the big leagues was an infielder named Luis Castro, who made his debut in 1902 with the Philadelphia Athletics. Latinos’ tremendous history in baseball was evident at the Third Annual Latino Future Magazine Beisbol Awards Festival, held recently at the Phoenix Art Museum. Photos at the museum were prominently displayed of this rich baseball history.

Included in the fabulous photo-montage were notable ballplayers such as Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, Minnie Minoso, Luis Tiant, Juan Marichal, Tony Perez, Reggie Jackson, Roy Campanella and Luis Gonzalez. Also part of this rich history of Latino greats was a photo of Hall of Fame Outfielder Ted Williams. The “Splendid Splinter” of the Boston Red Sox had maternal grandparents named Natalia Hernandez and Pablo Venzor. The family was Basque in origin and had settled around Hidalgo del Parral and Valle de Allende in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico.

Latino Players and Management were honored at this event. The 2008 Leyenda Award Recipient was Cuban born Chicago White Sox Outfielder Minnie Minoso. Minoso is the only player to have played professionally in seven different decades in Baseball. [Ed: He’s one of only two people to have played in five decades in the majors, from the 40’s to the 80’s, and made brief appearances for the independent St. Paul Saints in 1993 and 2003] Other honorees included the first Latino to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Late Roberto Clemente, whose award was accepted by his widow Vera Clemente. Fellow Hall of Fame inductee and Puerto Rican, known as the “Baby Bull,” Orlando Cepeda, who had a stellar baseball career with the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.

Minnie Minoso, then and now

Awards also were given to 2007 National League Champion Colorado Rockies Co-Owner Linda Alvarado and Latino Future Magazine Awards Co-Chairman, former Diamondbacks and current Seattle Mariners Pitcher as well as being an accomplished author, Miguel Batista. Special guests on hand to sign autographs and mingle with the fans were Chicago Cubs infielder Alex Cintron, Colorado Rockies rookie pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez, Texas Rangers pitcher Vicente Padilla, and Oakland A’s pitcher Kiko Calero.

With spring training in full swing in the Cactus League, what a tremendous outlet for fans from all over the country to see some of today’s brightest Latino stars and also baseball royalty from yesteryear. Although Latino heritage in baseball was the main theme, the literary skills of Honorary Chairman, Mariners Pitcher and author Miguel Batista, could not be overlooked. Aside from being a baseball player, Batista is known for his love of poetry and philosophy. He has also written a book of poetry in Spanish titled Sentimentos en Blanco y Negro (”Feelings in Black and White”). He also published a thriller about a serial killer titled “Avenger of Blood.”

Manny Molina, Founder of Latino Future Magazine and son Matt Molina who is the publisher hosted the evenings festivities saluting baseball’s best of Latino heritage. Also on hand to handle the Master of Ceremonies duty was the Spanish Voice of the Arizona Diamondbacks Miguel Quintana. Baseball’s Ambassador Vera Clemente was class personified as she spoke so eloquently on behalf of her late husband Roberto. She shared her husband’s legacy with his passion not only for the game of baseball, but of his humanitarian efforts to make a difference in community of Carolina, Puerto Rico and the completion of his dream, with the building of the Roberto Clemente Sports City, which teaches youth all aspects of sports in soccer, basketball, swimming, volleyball and tennis.

Minnie Minoso, who played seventeen years in the majors, had some of his greatest accomplishments after the age of thirty. He is the second oldest player behind the great Satchel Paige to appear in a Major League game, and the oldest ever to bat. The 83-year old Minoso, nicknamed “The Cuban Comet” and “Mr. White Sox” was quite a popular choice with the fans in attendance at the awards festival. He thanked everyone for coming out and joining in the celebration of Latinos in baseball, and quickly exclaimed, “Beisbol has been very, very good to me.”

Vera Clemente, the widow of Roberto, with Miguel Batista

As baseball prepares to go into another year, let’s get ready for opening day and a great baseball season, no matter what language - but for now, take me out to the ball game, Latino style:

Take me out to the ballgame, take me out with the crowd.
Sáqueme al partido, sáque, me con la muchedumbre.

Buy me some peanuts and Crackerjacks
Cómpreme algunos cacahuetes y Crackerjacks,

I don’t care if I ever get back.
No me preocupo si alguna vez regreso.

For it’s root, root, root for the home team.
Ya que esto es la raíz, la raíz, anime el equipo de casa,

If they don’t win it’s a shame.
Si ellos no ganan esto es una vergüenza,

For it’s 1-2-3 strikes you’re out, in the old ballgame.
Ya que esto es 1-2-3 huelgas que usted es en viejo ballgame.

Contributed by Ray Martinez
Ray Martinez aka Ray Mar has been actively involved as a professional Disc Jockey for over 30 years, as well as a celebrity interviewer and writer for a variety of broadcast stations and outlets in California. He is also an author of two books titled, Performance Beyond Expectation and Music from My Heart, a compilation of provocative opinion and thoughts of inspiration and motivation. In 2006, Ray Mar was inducted into the American Disc Jockey Hall of Fame at the 10th Annual Mobile Beat DJ Conference at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas.

I’m somewhat ambivalent about St. Patrick’s Day. The Scottish part of me is somewhat miffed that such a big fuss is made over it, particularly in contrast to the almost-universal ignorance of St Andrew’s Day [Andrew being the patron saint of Scotland, whose day is November 30th, should you care…and you probably don’t]. He is also well known for his antipathy to vipers, which would appear to make it somewhat blasphemous for any D-backs fan to celebrate his saint’s day. Still, it didn’t seem to do Arizona too much harm yesterday; some measure of revenge for our slithering namesakes expulsion from Ireland was obtained, as the Snakes prevailed over the Monks on St. Patrick’s Day.

Another fine outing for Edgar Gonzalez, who has been the most consistent performer of all our starting candidates in spring training. He gave up one run on three hits over four innings, with no walks and three strikeouts, and overall, has now allowed two runs in eleven innings of work, without allowing a free pass. Good article on EdGon in the Tribune, where he says, “If they need me as starter, in the bullpen, whatever. If they need me to throw more, I’ll throw more. It doesn’t matter to me. You know why? Because I don’t like excuses. I’m always working hard for my job. I want to keep my job. I want to be here, so it’s for that I always have to be ready for anything.”

Not so good news for the pitcher who followed him to the mound: Nippert struggled again, his control once more betraying him as he added three walks and five hits in 1.2 innings of work. In contrast to Gonzalez, Nippert has now walked eleven in seven frames - in addition to the fourteen hits. It doesn’t seem Nippert is worried, saying, “I guess I might have kind of got away from my fastball this spring, focusing more on my changeup and slider and stuff. I guess it was on the back burner, and when I needed it it’s not there. I need to focus a little more on it and incorporate it in with everything else, and I think everything will come along.” However, he’s now going to work with pitching coach Bryan Price, throwing between starts on flat ground just to work on location, which belies the expressed lack of concern. And with less than two weeks to Opening Day, about time too.

Solid enough after that, as Cruz, Peguero and Robertson combined for 3.1 innings of shutout ball, striking out five in total. With an off-day today, the team also pitched Doug Davis in a minor-league game against the White Sox - though since the lineup for Chicago apparently included Jim Thome, this must be some new definition of “minor-league”, with which I was previously unfamiliar. He allowed two runs over his five innings, one of them a home-run to Thome. He struck out four and, perhaps most importantly of all, he did not walk a hitter, something that’s been a problem over his previous appearances this spring.

At the plate, Trot Nixon finally broke out of his slump - despite, or perhaps because of, getting heckled by a bunch of typically-classy Yankees fans at TEP, who apparently didn’t get the memo that the Yankees are training in Florida this year. As they have ever spring since 1952. “If you want to get me right, bring in some Yankee fans,” he said. I dunno, do we think it’s worth it? He had a homer, a double and drove in four runs for the Diamondbacks, in a good day for the offense, who pounded out 15 hits. That also included two each for Hudson, Oeltjen [starring in the current Hollywood smash, Oeltjen Hears a “Who?”*] and Kelly, while Hammock reached twice, on a hit and a walk.

Fulsome praise from Melvin for Nixon afterwards - more than I’d say is deserved, but I’ve only seen two games and stats that are still sub-Ueckerian. “The more he’s here, the more comfortable he is… He brings some credibility. He’s a proven winner, he’s been on a championship team, and that goes a long way. All these guys know who he is. He’s a tough guy, he works hard, and he has an outstanding work ethic. The guy just wants to be out there for every inning of every game. It rubs off on our guys. They see the way he commits to his work. All those things rub off.” Let’s just hope the .194 average doesn’t. But with Tracy out, I think we are more or less stuck with Nixon as a lefty off the bench.

Couple of familiar names for the Padres. Tony Clark played first-base for San Diego, going 1-for-3 with a strike-out. And was somewhat startled to see Edgar Gonzalez come up to bat for them as a pinch-hitter in the seventh - had there been a trade in the middle of the game? No, this was just the elder brother of their first baseman, Adrian, whom they signed to a minor-league contract over the winter. Could get confusing in 2008, just like the Luis Gonzalez affair from a couple of years back. Last season, among the 1,174 MLB players, there were only two pairs with the same name, both with an Arizona connection: Chris Young (SDP and ARI), of course, but also Tony Peña, who played SS for the Royals as well as pitching out of our bullpen.

On the season-ticket sales front, Mike D. in the D-backs office says things are going very well. As of last week, “Our season ticket package revenue is 263% higher than last year at this time. To put that into perspective, we’ve nearly doubled our entire season ticket revenue from all of 2007, and it’s only March 12.” The club will be holding a season-ticket telethon during Wednesday night’s game against Seattle, as part of a push towards 15,000 tickets. The current figure is 14,250 [including the combined figures of partial packages] - it’s only the second time in franchise history the number has increased from one season to the next, the first, obviously enough, being after the World Series win.

Certainly, with the increase in gap between season-ticket prices and single-game prices, the incentive to buy a package is greater. [Though we are working with Mike on a scheme that might help out with single-game ticket purchases…] So if you’re contemplating getting seats with your tax refund, calling 602-514-8400 during Wednesday’s telethon would be a good time to do so: you’ll also get a FSN Arizona T-shirt and have the chance to win autographed memorabilia. We’ll be having the ‘draft’ for tickets from our season-ticket share next week, I believe: I think I might just skip the Cubs series this year, having seen quite enough of them and their supporters at Chase in 2007.

My Deadspin D-backs preview is now up. I peeked into the comments with some trepidation, but they’ve been surprisingly gentle, save the odd disgruntled Cubs fan. I think sneaking it out there the day after the NCAA brackets were announced probably allowed it to fly under the radar - it’s was pushed off the front page of the site within hours. Best comments to date appear to involve my nationality: “I’m looking forward to this year’s cricket preview, written by some dude in New Jersey,” and “I expected more usage of the letter “u” from a native Brit.” I’ve got at least two more of those damn previews to do for other sites: d’you think anyone would notice if I just recycled them and maybe just re-arranged the odd paragraph?

* Not to be confused with the upcoming drama based on the Denver Club sex-scandal, Helton Hires a Ho**.

** SB Nation attorneys here. We would just like to point out that Mr. McLennan’s statement above was made purely for satirical purposes and does not in any way imply that Todd Helton has ever paid for sex. We accept that Mr. Helton is a fine, upstanding member of the Rockies team, who could probably kick our lawyerly asses from here to Coors and back again. He just happens to have the closest name to “Horton”.***

*** Way to go, lawyers, killing a joke by over-explaining it.

If Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, this one is shaping up to be quite productive. Four film reviews written already (including a more detailed critique of Night of the Lepus, which appears to have been the chosen viewing of a significant number of readers!), I’ve got to get the last part of our community projections done, write up today’s game - hooray, a victory at long last! - and then got to knock our a Diamondbacks season preview for Deadspin. So I’d better hone my sarcasm finely for that; it’s a tough crowd of readers over there.

First though, posted the summary of the projections for our starting rotation. An interesting breadth of opinion there; I think we all agreed that Webb is going to kick ass this year, but that was just about the only point of consensus. All of the other pitchers saw ERA predictions that varied from a spread of 0.69 runs [for Davis] all the way up to 0.97 [for the Big Unit]. There was a good debate on how ‘lucky’ our pitchers were last season, and how much impact our defense - generally though of as above-average, though the question of how much remains open - will have on the results produced by our pitchers. Of course, Webb ran away with the poll question, picking up no less than 81% of the vote for ‘Most Wins’. I’d like to thank Mrs. Davis for stopping by and voting for her son, however.

Might be a rather tighter decision in this week’s question, as the Arizona bullpen will attempt to reproduce the considerable success they had in 2007. Closer Jose Valverde is gone, of course, replaced in the bullpen by Chad Qualls - statistically, that would seem to hurt Arizona, with Jose’s career ERA+ 141 and Chad’s 129. However, there’s no doubt that Valverde over-achieved last season, and this was a classic “sell high” move by Josh Byrnes. [At the time of writing, however, Chris Burke is looking like the jewel in that trade, with a crunchy .395/.489/.763 line this spring, leading the D-backs in hits and total bases]. Our relief corps was an absolute rock last year, the Four Relievers of the Apocalypse proving near-impeccable at preserving the one-run leads handed to them by Melvin. It’d be nice if they were given a bit more leeway by the offense, yet we still want their performances to be reliable. What do we anticipate?

Closer: Brandon Lyon
2007: 2.68 ERA, 1.24 WHIP
Bill James: 4.13, 1.38
CHONE: 4.09, 1.36
Marcel: 3.91, 1.35
MINER: 4.08, 1.41
ZIPS: 3.82, 1.33

Lyon steps in to Valverde’s shoes, with some filling to do, Papa Grande having led the majors in saves. However, we don’t really need Lyon to post a Valverde-esque line [2.66 ERA] to be acceptable in the role. As discussed back in December 2006, “The gap between a stud with a 3.00 ERA, and a bust whose ERA is double that, is surprisingly small: the stud converts eight of nine save chances, but a bust will still make seven of nine.” Lyon’s ERA will not be below three, because he will not continue his insane level of home-run suppression from last year, where he allowed only two bombs in 74 innings - predictions this year in the 5-7 range. He does have a surprising range of pitches for a closer - four solid ones, rather than one or two - and certainly has the phlegmatic character to deal with the outrageous fortune of the position.

The scope of the drop expected is surprising; the average ERA of the five systems is above four. Some of that is due to the HR/9 going up, but they also expect his hits allowed to go up - his BABIP last season was below average, at .287, and some regression there might be expected too. However, even in the second-half, after his 46-inning homerless streak ended, his ERA was a very solid 3.09, so I feel that a few more hits here and there should not prove too much more trouble.
AZ SnakePit: 3.47, 1.28, 36 saves

Setup Man: Tony Peña
2007: 3.27 ERA, 1.10 WHIP
Bill James: 3.53, 1.20
CHONE: 4.14, 1.33
Marcel: 3.93, 1.25
MINER: 4.30, 1.29
ZIPS: 3.69, 1.27

If Lyon did falter, Peña would be the next in line, and is certainly more of a traditional closer, a fireballer who had the same number of K’s as hits in 2007 [63 in 85.1 IP]. He led the pen in games and innings, and this is just his third season in the majors - Peña is still only 26, so would still seem to be capable of improvement. He was phenomenally brutal on right-handed batters, who hit just .176 with an OPS of only .521, but left-handers batted .241, so that wasn’t terrible. I’d like to see a few less walks from Peña, but overall, he should do well again in 2008, and that would put him in line to replace free-agent Lyon in the closer’s spot next season.
AZ SnakePit: 3.41 ERA, 1.16 WHIP

Setup Man: Chad Qualls
2007: 3.05 ERA, 1.32 WHIP [with Houston]
Bill James: 4.16, 1.33
CHONE: 3.73, 1.29
Marcel: 3.96, 1.32
MINER: 4.00, 1.27
ZIPS: 3.86, 1.29

As with Haren, I’m unsure whether these predictions take into account the move from Houston to Phoenix. Certainly, it takes Qualls from a fairly-neutral park to a hitter-friendly one, but he has always been a ground-ball pitcher [his career ratio is 2.31] and that should help ease the transition. His BABIP was also high, at .332, and just as for Lyon, that should regress towards the mean. Interestingly, Qualls has routinely been better than his FIP [Fielding Independent ERA], by 0.65-0.85 runs the past three years. Pitching in front of a good defence for the D-backs should help him some more in 2008.
AZ SnakePit: 3.37 ERA, 1.24 WHIP

Famine: Juan Cruz
2007: 3.10 ERA, 1.26 WHIP
Bill James: 3.75, 1.33
CHONE: 3.72, 1.33
Marcel: 4.17, 1.38
MINER: 4.12, 1.42
ZIPS: 3.67, 1.35

Maybe that should be Juan ‘Feast or Famine’ Cruz, since it seemed last year he was often insanely good yet then imploded utterly. Witness one month (July 4-August 4) of 11.1 innings with only four hits and 19 strikeouts - bookended by two performances where he gave up five hits, two walks and nine runs in an inning of work. He struck out batters an an obscene 12.84/9 IP, and right-handers managed only sixteen hits all year off Cruz, a .143 clip. He may be the nearest thing we have to a ROOGY, as left-handers were a lot more comfortable [a .269/.412/.454 line, with a K:BB ratio of 34:24], but if properly used, should remain virtually as effective.
AZ SnakePit: 3.52 ERA, 1.29 WHIP

LOOGY: Doug Slaten
2007: 2.72 ERA, 1.51 WHIP
Bill James: 3.48, 1.35
CHONE: 4.11, 1.39
Marcel: 4.09, 1.39
MINER: 3.61, 1.27
ZIPS: 3.63, 1.39

Slaten’s status for Opening Day remains in doubt: he hasn’t pitched in a game yet, but Melvin said today he was “really encouraged” that Slaten could be ready. If so, he’ll be the left-handed specialist again; last season, he saw action in 61 games, but only threw 36.1 innings. Still, almost 45% of the hitters he faced last year were right-handed and, to be honest, an overall opponents’ average of .275 is a good bit higher than I’d like. He saw almost no action late on - 8.1 innings in August and September combined, though that’s partly because of five “0 IP” appearances where he failed to retire a batter. Be nice if he could be like July - 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K - but he’s likely the reliever I’m least optimistic about.
AZ SnakePit: 4.05 ERA, 1.44 WHIP

Long relief: Edgar Gonzalez
2007: 5.03 ERA, 1.35 WHIP
Bill James: 4.76, 1.38
CHONE: 4.34, 1.33
Marcel: 4.60, 1.33
MINER: 4.31, 1.30
ZIPS: 4.81, 1.30

Bob McManaman recently said, “Edgar Gonzalez might be as valuable as any pitcher the Diamondbacks have.” That is perhaps a bit of hyperbole, especially for a man with a career ERA+ of 79, but I can see where he’s coming from; EdGon’s key is his flexibility. As a reliever last year, he pitched in every inning from the first to the eleventh, started twelve games and finished five more, career highs in both categories. Gonzalez covered for Johnson during his absence, and will likely be asked to do so again this year. He’s the only one of our significant relievers expected by the systems to improve, and it’s almost impossible to predict his workload. Hopefully it’ll be low, as that’ll mean our starters are healthy and pitching deep enough into games not to need long relief.
AZ SnakePit: 4.49 ERA, 1.35 WHIP

Mop-up man: Dustin Nippert
2007: 5.56 ERA, 1.41 WHIP
Bill James: 4.30, 1.48
CHONE: 4.77, 1.50
Marcel: 4.94, 1.43
MINER: 4.15, 1.43
ZIPS: 5.14, 1.54

Nippert or Medders? Could be either at time of writing, but I think Nippert is more likely to get it, based on age and potential - I can’t see Medders getting any better. Nippert should, albeit in part because 2007 was pretty bad: like Cruz, he could be fine, but while Cruz was consistently inconsistent, Nippert failed to pitch adequately after the break. A first-half ERA of 3.05 ballooned to 7.66 in the second half, with hitters teeing off at a .308 rate. The real Nippert is likely somewhere in the middle; the question is, will he be somewhere in the middle for Arizona, or somewhere in the middle, somewhere else?
AZ SnakePit: 4.59, 1.39 WHIP

Diamondbacks 6, White Sox 5
Hey, look! A victory! Never mind that it again comes against the White Sox, who have now provided the majority of our wins this spring [four of seven], or that it came on the back of another somewhat shaky outing by a starter. Dan Haren gave up five runs, four earned, on six hits over five innings, but was still fairly happy: “I probably made some pitches I wouldn’t necessarily make during the season. But command was there, I was able to go in and out with the fastball. My offspeed stuff is coming around. I feel good. My arm feels great. Hopefully the next time I can get better results.” Maybe the cold, drizzly weather - which delayed the first-pitch by 22 minutes - affected him a bit.

It didn’t seem to hurt the offense, who got off to a roaring start, scoring in each of the first three innings to take a 5-1 lead by the end of the third, with Augie Ojeda singling in two in the second, then scoring thanks to a muffed fly-ball from Young in center that let him get all the way round to third. But the Sox came back, helped by two errors from the Diamondbacks (Upton and Ojeda the culprits there) to tie things up by the middle of the fifth. Haren departed and Medders gave Arizona two scoreless, but hardly perfect innings, with three hits and two walks. Fruto and Rosales proved themselves equally adept at dodging bullets, and the bullpen line today was 4 IP, 6 H, 4 BB - but zero runs.

Conor Jackson was the offensive star, going 3-for-4 and doubling home what proved to be the winning run in the seventh. That boosted his spring average to .326. He was batting clean-up today, though that was likely in part because Byrnes sat, being replaced in left by Jeff Salazar. Mark Reynolds reached safely twice, with a walk and a hit, as did Salazar. However, the game was also the last hurrah for a number of players, with 2B Bonifacio, catcher Castillo, pitcher Fruto and OF Raines Jr. all being cut from the active roster - the first three were optioned to the minors, but Raines was a non-roster invitee so his future is less certain.

Looks like we can look forward to Chris Young and Mark Reynolds going head-to-head for the strikeout crown this year after all. For the Mark Reynolds experiment of trying to avoid K’s has come to an end. Here’s what he has to say:

Fair enough, in some ways, though ‘got me to the major leagues’ might be a bit of an exaggeration. If I recall correctly, the reason he’s here is because of the time last seasons where we had no third-basemen above Double-A, whose count of functioning limbs didn’t stop at three. For the record, after today’s game, Young leads the team with 12 strikeouts this spring, and Reynolds is third on 9 [Salazar slots in the middle on 11]. But if he bats .279 with 25 homers and 90 RBI - his 2007 stats, pro-rated to a full 162-game season - who cares how many times Special K fans?

Today’s comments starter As well as the community projections for our relief corps, what members of the bullpen are you most and least concerned about this season, and why?

I guess that, technically, I still maintain my proud record of not having seen the Diamondbacks lose this year. That’s because we left in the middle of the tenth inning after Arizona had failed to break through, and the game was still tied at four. Under Cactus League rules, that meant we could no longer win - the best we could hope for was a tie, as the game ended automatically after ten innings, regardless of the score. “It can only really go downhill,” commented Mrs. SnakePit - who had an comedy show at The Sets for which she had to prepare, and so was somewhat keen to get away. I could hardly argue with that, and so we slipped out; this turned out to be a wise decision, and Connor Robertson failed to retire a batter in the bottom of the tenth, and the game was over before we’d even reached our car.

We did manage to get there just in time to see the first out; Mrs. SnakePit picked me up after attending the funeral service, and dropped me off as she went to find somewhere to park. I should mention that the “martyr points” required for me to be at the game were likely earned afterwards, when I set up 250 chairs for her event at The Sets. As I casually pointed out, it’s the second Saturday in a row where I’ve have exhausted myself moving someone else’s furniture around for her. I managed somehow to blow out a muscle in the arch of my left foot there, leaving me basically unable to put any weight on it. I will be rehabbing tomorrow - and tonight as well, just as soon as I’ve posted this on the site. We have Night of the Lepus on the DVR, in which giant killer bunnies menace Arizona, to the concern of Dr. McCoy and Marion Crane - well, DeForest Kelley and Janet Leigh.

The big question about today’s game is, naturally, how did the Big Unit look, making his second rehab start? And the answer is, pretty well. There were some rumblings of discontent from the faithful in the bottom of the first, when he gave up a homer to Gary Matthews, the second batter he faced. And he seemed a bit fly-ball prone early on, with five of the first six outs being that way - as well as the homer, of course. Hitters getting under the ball, expecting it to break more? I’d probably be happier if they were under-estimating the bite, and getting on top of his pitches. Nick Piecoro said only one of the outs was hard-hit, but it seemed a couple more than that to me were not exactly pop-ups, and seemed about a quarter-inch on the bat from following Matthews’ pitch out of the yard.

However, Johnson said, “My slider will get better as my arm strength builds…and the stronger your arm is the more effective all these other pitches are as well.” And the homer turned out to be the only hit Johnson would give up in three innings of work. No idea about the velocity of his pitches, but even from where we were sitting, down the third-base line, it was apparent that the Angels hitters were, on occasion, getting pretty badly fooled. That was most apparent in the third inning, where he got two K’s and a pop-up to second-base, seeming like the Johnson we know and love of old. I do concur with Nick that Johnson got stronger as he went on. He threw 43 pitches, ten more than in his previous outing, and is scheduled for 65 in his next outing, currently penciled in for Friday.

All of Arizona’s scoring came on a pair of homers. With two out in the second, Justin Upton singled, Chris Burke legged out an infield hit and Salazar smacked one over the fence to right field. Eric Byrnes completed our total for the say when he uncorked a monster blast to left-field, to open the sixth, which restored Arizona’s lead for a bit. That redeemed him in our eyes, as he’d tried to nail a runner at the plate in the Angels two-run fourth with a somersault flip - it was obviously a futile endeavor, and his throw missed the cutoff man, allowing the hitter to move into scoring position. On the other hand, Salazar’s homer was countered by his dreadful misplay of a ball to center in the same inning, which ended up another double.

Upton and Burke both got two hits; the latter has now improved his spring average to .417. On the other hand, Stephen Drew looked particularly lost at the plate, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, and his spring average is down to .185. Yes, I know it’s all meaningless, but if Drew and Burke start the season the way they’re playing, it’s going to be increasingly difficult for Melvin not to have Burke in the lineup somewhere - he’s got enough flexibility to be able to play anywhere in the infield. Trot Nixon might not even make it that far: 0-for-4 today as a DH, leaving him just .156 (5-for-32) in spring overall. If Nixon is the answer, I’m not sure what the question is.

Less of a bullpen than a bulllump

After Johnson left the game, the Big Unit was replaced by the Petit Unit. His first inning was shaky - though as noted above, with better work from his outfielders, two of the three doubles he allowed should have been singles at most. He settled down thereafter, with just one more hit in his three innings, and added three more K’s to bring his spring K:BB ratio to a tasty 14:3. Billy Buckner scattered four hits and two walks over his three frames, but the only damage was a homer to Matt Brown which tied the game in the eighth inning. He also struck out three Angels.

Game Notes

• First time at Tempe Diablo. It’s right in the middle of…well, a light industrial park would seem to be about it. Parking is pretty tough there; we ended up having to find a spot at the back of a nearby Motorola facility. There isn’t much close to the stadium unless you get there very early. Otherwise, be prepared for a long walk.

• Alternatively, if you don’t want to pay, you can go stay at the Buttes resort next door to the, from where you’ve got a nice overlooking view for free. You can even lurk on the access road like these guys - the view is probably not much worse than from the outer corners of the upper deck at Chase.

• The game was totally sold out. I don’t think I’ve seen so many scalpers at a Spring Training game before. That was probably no surprise; we bought our tickets a couple of months back, and even at that point, the best seats remaining were in the last section bleachers, out by the AZ bullpen.
  

  
  Backup catcher Wilkin Castillo warms up

• And guess who forgot a) his cap, and b) that our seats were all the way out in the sun? Fortunately, we did remember to bring the sunblock, but I sense the top of my head - where the hair was light and blond to begin with, even before it started thinning! - may feel it a bit tomorrow.

• The game tempo was brisk, helped by neither team giving up a walk until Buckner in the bottom of the seventh. Bonifacio helped out with a fine grab of a liner, throwing quickly to first to start a double-play. He also stole a base, though Upton was caught for the first time this spring. Ojeda also made a great stab of an in-between hop at shortstop.
  

  

• Finally, if you go to the stadium, I’d recommend sitting on the first-base side if you get a chance. The view looking in that direction (above) is much better, as from the third-base side it’s mostly the cars rushing past on the I-10 freeway. It feels like they are only a Mark Reynolds blast away…

Today’s comment starter Minor-league and/or spring-training parks. Which ones are your favorites, and why?

I was just sending an email to a customer of ours on the bead side of things, who’s in Tasmania, and I suddenly realised that just about the only thing I know about the place is the Tasmanian Devil, from those old Warner Bros cartoons. I’m sure it’s a very nice place, but I think the tourism industry there has likely been harmed by a perception that the island is infested with gibbering monsters that buzz-saw their way through trees. Chuck Jones has a lot to answer for - and it’s not the first time. I remember seeing my first coyote after moving to Arizona: I was surprised it wasn’t flicking through an Acme catalog, with rocket-powered skates strapped to its feet. I am still to see my first roadrunner; if it doesn’t leave a trail of smoke behind it as it runs, I’ll be very disappointed.

Friday night, and so I’ll keep this one relatively short, as Mrs. SnakePit and I will be indulging in a crap DVD double-bill, and we need to get that started before too much longer. Another day, another defeat for the D-backs, as we fall 11-6 to the Giants, despite putting out what looks suspiciously like a full-strength lineup. Brandon Webb got smoked for 11 hits in 4.2 innings, but professed to be pleased; he was working mostly on locating his fastball. “Maybe I’ll reevaluate during the season if I’m getting hit like this. But right now, we’re just trying to get some work in, get my pitch count up, get the innings in, which I did today.”

Not much success for the rest of the pitchers either: Cruz got the loss despite striking out four in 1.1 innings, thanks to two walks and a hit. Qualls was the only pitcher to escaped unscathed, with a 1-2-3 seventh, but the Giants were clearly in safari mode - intent on bagging Lyons - taking our new closer for four hits and three runs in his inning of work. Insert obvious spring excuses here, but our Cactus League ERA is now the wrong side of six. About the only saving graces are that we’re leading the National League in strikeouts with 132 in 157 innings, and it’s not as if the rest of the division are posting shutouts - the Padres’ ERA is at 5.97, the Rockies’ 5.33 and the Giants 7.09. Only the Dodgers (4.65) are doing much and they play in Florida, which is less hitter-friendly.

The batters were a bit better, getting ten hits, including a pair for Byrnes and a bases-clearing double for Bonifacio. Drew and Upton each had a hit and a walk, with the latter getting two RBI as well. We scored four times in the sixth to tie the game at six, but Cruz immediately handed back the lead, and we didn’t add anything to our tally down the stretch. The defeat drops the D-backs to 6-11, and Arizona is now seriously in danger of our first losing spring since 2004, when we went 14-17. Last year, we led the Cactus League, going 20-12 - interesting to compare results for the NL teams, beside how they performed in April once the season started.

       APR   SPRING   DIFF  ATL   .640    .600     +40  MIL   .640    .433    +207  NYM   .625    .364    +261  ARI   .593    .625     -32  LAD   .577    .515     +62  SFG   .543    .469     +84  SDP   .500    .563     -63  PIT   .500    .414     +86  FLA   .480    .433     +47  CIN   .480    .600    -120  PHI   .440    .379     +61  STL   .417    .615    -198  HOU   .417    .621    -204  CHC   .417    .567    -150  COL   .385    .520    -135  WSN   .346    .393     -47

There. I feel much better after that, since it appears there was little or no correlation between spring training performance and results after Opening Day. However, most eye-witness reports seems to suggest the Diamondbacks play has been pretty sluggish this month. Though they looked pretty decent the game I saw them play down in Tucson, that was back when they were capable of winning, and they haven’t done much of that lately. Here’s to them extending my record to 2-0 this spring, with a victory behind Randy tomorrow. But before that, another week has gone by, so time to update the heroes and villains of spring training to date. First the pitchers, then the hitters; all stats are up to and including March 14:

• Chris Burke: .394/.487/.818 in 33 AB
• Chris Snyder: .417/.517/.958 in 24 AB
• Jesus Merchan: .522/.560/.696 in 23 AB
  ————————–
• Chris Young: .229/.325/.371 in 35 AB
• Trot Nixon: .179/.294/.357 in 28 AB
• Robby Hammock: .154/.241/.269 in 26 AB

• Edgar Gonzalez: 5 H, 0 BB, 1 ER in 7 IP
• Yusmeiro Petit: 8 H, 2 ER, 11 K in 7.1 IP
• Conner Robertson: 4 H, 1BB, 1 ER in 6 IP
  ————————–
• Dustin Nippert: 9 H, 8 BB, 6 ER in 5.1 IP
• Brandon Lyon: 11 H, 0 K, 7 ER in 5 IP
• Micah Owings: 12 H, 8 BB, 8 ER in 6.1 IP

Today’s comment starter Yesterday’s one was greeted with an uncomfortable silence and foot-shuffling, until foulpole’s recent comment bravely broke the ice - but it seems I am the only person who has ever been in this kind of situation. Either I am dysfunctional, or you’re too embarrassed to ‘fess up. On that front, it has been agreed that I am not attending the service, and will be picked up by Mrs. SnakePit after it’s over. This is for the best, I think, and we’ll all be more comfortable as a result. Something less controversial for today, I think. The National League East; has the Mets’ acquisition of Santana pushed them back over the top, or will the Phillies repeat? And should the rest of the division even bother showing up?

Great moral dilemmas, #67. As noted previously, we have tickets for Saturday afternoon’s Arizona Diamondbacks game at Tempe Diablo Stadium against the Angels. Randy will be making his second start of Spring Training, and I’m very curious to see how that goes, needless to say. However, Chris has a funeral/memorial service to go to, starting at 11am on Saturday morning. Now, neither of us would be quite so callous as to attend the event in our D-backs shirts. But I don’t know how long these kind if things go: I have been to exactly one in my entire life, that of my grandmother, and so hardly have much experience. So, the - purely hypothetical as yet - question is…how much of a social faux pas would it be, to leave a funeral early?

Doing so, in order to attend a baseball game - and a Spring Training game at that - might seem like the height of callousness. But, I want to point out, I never actually met the deceased. He’s the father of a close friend and workmate of Mrs. SnakePit, so any relationship is purely through her. To be honest, I would feel somewhat hypocritical to be going at all, given my complete lack of any personal knowledge of the subject - though Chris has pointed out that the funeral is not for the dead, it’s for those left behind. These tickets were also bought months ago, after checking with Mrs. SnakePit that the date was indeed free. Now, obviously, subsequent events could not be legislated for, but you can hopefully understand the potential issue here. I am hopeful, however, that it won’t be an problem: since the funeral is at 11, we should be fine. Unless the memorial service goes into extra innings.

Back in the land of the living, the wheels fell off the Meddersmobile this afternoon, in no uncertain fashion, Brandon allowing five runs in one inning, on five hits, including three for extra-bases, and a hit batter. That certainly drops him back in the race between him and Nippert for the final bullpen spot. They have similarly mediocre lines (Nippert: nine hits and six ER in 5.1 innings; Medders: the same in 6 innings), but thus far Medders has at least shown decent control, with no walks and five K’s, compared to Nippert’s eight walks and three K’s. Medder’s muddle blew a three-run lead for the D-backs and dropped them their fifth loss in six games. Their overall record is now 6-10-1, ahead only of the Giants in the Cactus League. I know it’s Spring Training, and yet…

Micah Owings got the start; he was somewhat better than last time, but still struggled and had to be relieved before the end of the third. In his 2.2 innings, Owings allowed three runs (on unearned) on five hits and three walks, with four K’s. He loaded the bases with one out in the first, but got back-to-back strikeouts to escape the jam. It looks like the experiment shifting Owings to the other side of the rubber is over, as he shifted back today. “I tried it, but I felt like I was fighting my body to throw to my glove side, kind of fighting against myself instead of nice and easy, which is me and which is a very important part of how I pitch, being able to hit that glove side consistently.”

Another key question is getting Owings’ changeup to work, in order to give him a reliable third pitch, and help him go through the rotation a third time. [Last year, opponents batted .199 first time round; .270 the second time; and .321 after that, so they clearly got more comfortable the more they saw of Micah] According to Melvin, “He threw more changeups, some good, some not great,” but it’s perhaps worth also including the rest of Melvin’s comments:

Being economical is definitely a key to Owings’ success: he had too many outings last season where he’d be passing ninety pitches after throwing four-plus innings. His overall average last year was 16.3 pitches per, which feels high for someone who isn’t a big strikeout guy and didn’t have that big a WHIP. [Curiously, the top three among those with 100+ IP all had an Arizona connection: Byung-Hyun Kim, Claudio vargas and Doug Davis, who all definitely fall into the latter category] Owings’ average of 3.82 pitches per plate appearance, is above average too. though again trails Davis, at 3.90.

Elsewhere in the game, a good effort by Gutierrez, allowin a single and a walk over three innings, while Peguero retired all four hitters he faced. Salazar got us on the board in the first, clearing the bases with a double, and added another hit later. Conor Jackson went 3-for-3, while Chris Burke continued to hit for power with his third homer of spring - that ties him for the team lead, with Chris Snyder. It was also Burke’s 12th hit, again tied for best on the team, in that case with Jesus Merchan. Of course, while it doesn’t mean anything, if he were to keep hitting at this rate once the season starts, the trade could turn out to be a real steal.

Bad news for Miguel Montero; a CAT scan on his injured finger revealed that he still isn’t ready to resume baseball activity. According to Bob Melvin, it’ll be another week, and that would only leave ten days before Opening Day. It is getting better, but the D-backs are being cautious with their catcher; that’s sensible, because there is no need to rush him at this point and risk losing Montero for a more extended period. Robby Hammock can cover for a couple of weeks, and will provide a degree of comfort for Randy Johnson’s first few starts - assuming the Big Unit is ready, of course.

In a somewhat related area, we only found out today about the Latino Béisbol Award Festival, which took place this evening at the Phoenix Art Museum. Miguel Batista is the honorary chair, so that’s fun, right there. Also scheduled to attend were Miguel Quintana, who does the Spanish-language play-by-play for the D-backs on KSUN; Roberto Clemente’s widow, Vera; and Linda Alvarado, the first woman to have a stake in an MLB team (the Rockies, to be specific) without inheriting the position. Mrs. SnakePit is still somewhat miffed she didn’t get an invite to the event.

Finally, minor-league baseball continues to prove that no viable marketing opportunity should ever be missed. The Macon Music independent baseball team are planning an Elliott Spitzer Night to “honor” the former governor of New York. Among the elements, fans with the name Eliot, Spitzer or Kristen, along with any fan from New York, will receive $1 off admission. Any fan who has ever resigned a position will also receive $1 off admission. The ninth fan into the ballpark - or Client No. 9, as Spitzer was known - will get a prize too. I do wonder if anyone will still remember Spitzer, as the promotion is not due to take place until June 13.

Today’s comment starter. Have you ever had to decide between a sporting event and a significant alternative commitment? How did you resolve the conflict, and did you feel any guilt?