Phoenix.BloggersPub

Didn’t get to write up anything about yesterday’s game, so I guess I should start by giving a brief recap of that. It was another back-and-forth contest, which again saw each team blow two leads, before Kansas City prevailed, 8-7. The Royals pounced on Dan Haren for two runs in the first, but the D-backs hit back with consecutive solo homers in the second, from Reynolds and Snyder. The former was a massive blast that left the park; see Foulpole’s diary for teammate Robby Hammock’s reaction to the shot. He also said, “When you square up a ball like that, you don’t even feel it hit the bat. That doesn’t happen very often. I can count on my hand how many times I’ve done it.”

Eric Byrnes led off the third with another homer; Kansas scored two off Lyon in the fifth, then Arizona came back once more with four in the bottom half of the same inning. Kansas City got two in the seventh, starting with a bizarre one: John Buck struck out, but Easley, unaware the umpire had ruled it a dropped third strike, rolled the ball back to the mound as Arizona left the field: Buck reached first and the runner on third came home to score. That’s the kind of mental lapse that we can certainly do without; one trusts Easley learned from the experience; a shaken Nippert walked the next two batters, resulting in the tying score, though both runs were unearned, being credited to Easley’s error. The Royals scored the go-ahead run off Petit in the eighth and restricted the D-backs to one hit in the final three innings.

Overall, a better day for our hitters than our pitchers. Reynolds was 2-for-3 with two RBI, and Hudson also drove in two. Byrnes reached safely twice, with a walk and his homer. Haren wasn’t very impressive, scattering five hits and back-to-back walks in his four innings of work, with two earned runs. Lyon loaded the bases in the third before he retired a hitter, and was also tagged for two runs. Qualls pitched a scoreless inning, but even he allowed two hits, and Nippert had to be bailed out of the seventh, walking three. Petit mopped up, and did strike out three in 2.1 innings, despite taking the loss.

In contrast, today was a pitcher’s duel, though the result was still the same, Arizona losing by one run as they went down to the A’s, 2-1 - the two sides combined for only nine hits in 57 at-bats. Davis had a wobbly first, walking two and allowing a hit and a run, but settled down, not allowing another hit as he finished four innings. Meanwhile, former D-back Dana Eveland [sent to Oakland as a cog in the Dan Haren trade] was looking pretty damn good, fanning seven of his former team-mates over five innings - that’s as many innings as he pitched for us last year. However, in 2007, that led to eight earned runs; today, it was zero. “It’s kind of typical Doug Davis, I guess you could say” - and Davis did exactly that afterwards. “At the same time, I want to reverse that, especially when my young padawan on the other side is out there throwing strikes. Yes: that is a Star Wars reference.

We did break through against Keith Foulke - wasn’t he supposed to be signed by us? - to score in the sixth, though we didn’t get a hit after Jackson’s sacrifice fly put us on the board. Jackson was wearing #81 and no name for the day, having left his jersey down in Tucson. Edgar Gonzalez was somewhat unlucky, it appears, with a bloop double down the left-field line, followed by a chopper back up the middle leading to his run. Those were the only two hits he allowed, over his two innings of work. Rosales and Murphy put up zeros in the seventh and eighth inning, to end our pitchers for the day, Eric Byrnes had two of our five hits, with Hudson getting a hit and a walk, but bases on balls were sadly outnumbered by strikeouts, to the tune of 2-9.

Scanning the presses, Steve Gilbert points out that “What looked to be a set roster heading into Spring Training has become a little more complicated,” and that’s certainly true. Uncertainty lingers over at least three members of the roster due to injury (Tracy, Montero and Johnson), while the continuing struggles of Nippert have threatened his apparently guaranteed spot. As well as the usual suspect of Hammock, Nixon (frantically taking groundballs at first in minor-league games) and Medders, left-handed outfielder Alex Romero is now being considered by Melvin. He said, “Romero is a guy that every day comes in there and is getting hits for us… He seems to be a guy that definitely is worth mentioning when we’re talking about additional guys that could make the roster.” The 24-year old spent all last year with the Sidewinders, and hit .310 there.

Wheels up for Arizona this year? We stole 109 last season, which is a lot less than the 200 put up by the league-leading Mets [78 from Reyes would help any team there], but the early hints and signs are that we’ll see more motion this year. Melvin wants Upton to improve his running game, and also picks out Stephen Drew as someone who can do more in this area. [Drew’s career 11 SB without being caught is the most since Phil Cavarretta retired in 1955, having gone 65-0, at a leisurely pace, over a 22-year career] On the other hand, the high number of runners getting doubled off this spring, has had Melvin reminding his team of the difference between “aggressive” and “psychotic” base-running. He also said Reynolds, Snyder and Jackson wouldn’t be asked to steal more, but…

Looks like “GoJack” might have a different opinion on that. “Conor Jackson is not just stronger from his winter workout regimen. He’s faster, too. Scouts have clocked Jackson’s time to first base at around 4.5 seconds this spring training…a noteworthy improvement from previous years, when he was in the 4.7 to 4.8 range.” He says he’s looking to beat out a few more hits down the line, but thinks a stolen base or two could be possible with the right pitcher. The same story also updates us on Tracy’s condition: he’ll hopefully be off his blood-thinners Friday, and should be ready for game action within a week or so. I’d still say that leaves him very doubtful as far as being ready for Opening Day, even in a limited role off the bench.

We’re approaching Fantasy Baseball draft time, so it’s been interesting to see ourselves as others see us. Patrick of The Fantasy Baseball Generals takes a look at five D-backs, but seems to find much of concern: Eric Byrnes “will break your heart”; “it wouldn’t be a surprise if [Drew] continues to flop”; Reynolds’ “contact rate is a big problem”; and as for Lyon, “there is no way he holds on to the closer’s job.” Five? Oh, yeah: Carlos Gonzalez is included, even though he’s now an Oakland A, since Patrick thinks his hitting prowess is, like Drew, an illusion caused by Lancaster. Sheesh. Way to pour a damper on the day, Patrick.

I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but when it comes to the draft, a week Saturday, I will be relying heavily on Rotoworld and their encyclopedic coverage of everything fantasy-related. I’m not generally a fan of paying for content anywhere on the Web [hell, not when there’s enough free stuff available, if you know where to look], but I was impressed: their free news service is good by itsel, but is really only the tip of the iceberg compared to what’s available after you login. Sign up here. Actually, no; forget I mentioned any of this, especially if you’re competing against me in the SnakePit Fantasy League.

Speaking of which, we’ve filled up the league for 2008 - sorry to those who didn’t get in this year. There was a 75% return rate among managers, which I think is pretty good, and we replaced the departees with some well-known names among contributors here. The presence of Wimb and Muu mean that the league will be spanning three continents this year, which is pretty cool. If only we’d got William K out in the Far East, we’d have been even more dispersed! All participants need to test their systems through the home-page for the league, to make sure it’s draft compatible. I’m also thinking about moving the draft back an hour, to 2pm Arizona time; opinions for and against that are welcome in the comments.

Interesting stand by Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, who has decided to ban the Dallas Morning News blogger from the locker-room. It’s kinda weird that Cuban - who runs a blog himself - would be such a Luddite here, apparently believing that an online reporter is less a reporter than one whose output appears only on the printed page. I should mention that I have no interest in reporting from the D-backs locker-room. This is covered more than adequately by Messrs. Piecoro and McManaman, and in addition, the acceptance of such a privilege could compromise my independence. But barring someone employed by a daily newspaper, on the basis that his work is delivered through the tubes of the Internet rather than on dead trees? No. I don’t think so.

Today’s comment starter Las Vegas has come out with the Over/Under for wins by all the MLB teams this year. [Link opens in convenient new window] where would you put your money this year? we need a team, and whether they’ll be above or below the projected figure. shoe, we are awaiting your wisdom particularly on these over/unders.

It would have been nice if Randy Johnson had received this level of run support last season: we scored as many runs today as in any two of his games last year, put together. Bit of a wild one down in Tucson. 30 hits, nineteen runs, four errors and each side blowing two leads, with the Diamondbacks scoring three times in the top of the ninth to snatch an improbable victory. If that’s any kind of indicator as to what we can expect once the season starts, it’s gonna be a wild 2008.

The first inning went very smoothly: 16 pitches, one hit and ended with the strike-out of Matt Holliday. No problems there. The second inning…not so much: the first four batters all reached, including a three-run homer on a 3-0 pitch to Chris Iannetta. 33 pitches there, and Johnson was yanked, having reached the scheduled 50-pitch mark a little earlier than he and Bob Melvin would probably have liked. As with all Spring Training games, the results are probably not as important as the execution, so let’s turn to Johnson for his comments after the game, courtesy of Nick Piecoro:

Emphasis added, but assuming Johnson is not just saying what he thinks we wnat to hear, that seems like good news. His next scheduled start will indeed be on Saturday in Tempe, so you’ll be getting an eye-witness report from that one. Despite that three-run second inning, Arizona still had the lead, having leapt out to a four-run lead in the top of the first, with a two-run homer by Stephen Drew the most productive blow. However, the Rockies continued to come back, getting to Tony Peña and Max Scherzer to build a 6-4 lead by the end of the fourth.

Arizona scored three times in the sixth, including a solo homer by Chris Burke [another two hits today, to bring him up to .400 on the season], but Fruto couldn’t hold the 7-6 lead and the Rockies plated two on three hits to retake the lead once more. Things loooked bleak for the Diamondbacks as they trailed 9-7 in the ninth, but we clawed our way back once more, with our third inning of the afternoon scoring three runs or more, to make a winner of Billy Buckner, and Robertson duly vacuumed up the save. The offense pounded out a total of 16 hits, with two apiece for Young, Kelly, Nixon, Burke and Salazar, with Jackson reaching safely twice, on a hit and a walk.

In the light of Johnson’s start, good bit in the San-Diego Union Tribune focusing on Randy Johnson and his back. He is particularly frank about the 2007 success, and how their success has left him with a burning desire to be a bigger part of it this year. I think we’ll leave the final words after today’s step on the road to recovery, to the man himself:

It’s not often Gaslamp Ball and AZ SnakePit have much in common, but I think we were both equally shocked - shocked! - albeit in different directions, by the news that Eric Byrnes’ wife, Tarah, used to be one of the Pad Squad, the San Diego equivalents of the Rally Backs. Really. I share your sense of betrayal at the news that Arizona “fan favorite” Byrnes is, literally, sleeping with the enemy. And a Padre at that: surely he could have found someone nice in Denver, if he wanted to play away from home? There’s probably now a plush rainbow unicorn sitting on the dresser by the bed, and he’s likely also being forced to set up a MySpace profile as we speak. “Say it ain’t so, Jo…er, Eric.”

Fun story in the Republic, about signing day down at TEP on Friday. That’s where the players come in and get to put their names on all the balls, bats, jersey and sundry memorabilia that the club will use for charitable purposes in the coming year. So if you were at Friday’s game, and the players seemed a little bit reluctant to sign your baseball cards… The reason would be because they’d already signed a grand total of 7,525 items that day! Though the workload was far from equitably split: prospect Wes Roemer, for example, had only six balls to sign, probably less than a minute’s work.

At the other end, poor Justin Upton had 288 baseballs, 61 bats, 120 photos and 39 jerseys: including team items, that’s 508 pieces, most on the team, so it’s clear they expect him to reach superstar status in 2008. Webb would likely have come top, except they only got him to sign six bats - and I have to say, an autographed Webb bat would be an unusual thing to have hanging on your wall! He was top in balls (312) and jerseys (50). Oddly, Micah Owings only had to sign 15 bats; I’d have had that down as a more highly-coveted item for fans. Here’s the overall top ten in items signed:

1. Justin Upton: 508
2. Eric Byrnes: 496
3. Brandon Webb: 488
4. Chris Young: 487
5. Orlando Hudson: 458
6. Stephen Drew: 451
7. Conor Jackson: 401
8. Mark Reynolds: 395
9. Randy Johnson: 375
10. Micah Owings: 371

Today’s comment starter. Over at Royals Review, they’ve come up with a list of seven rule changes they want to see [link opens in convenient new window]. Which ones do you agree with and/or are there any others you would choose to impose?

First, a quick glance back at last week’s installment, where we cast the runes and looked at the outfield. It seems that we’re going to have a speedy trio, with all three projected to steal 20 bases or more. That’d be impressive - last year was the first time in franchise history we had more than one player reach that mark in the same season - but Young and Byrnes seems like locks to get there again, so it really comes down to Upton. And there’s little doubt about his raw speed, so it all comes down to whether he has the savvy (and, perhaps, whether he gets the opportunities) on the base-paths.

Both Byrnes and Young are expected to be around the same number of homers; Eric loses ten points of average while Young, it’s hoped, will gain around 25. As with the ‘neutral’ projections, Upton sees the biggest variation, though no-one reaches Bill James’ levels of lust. In the overall poll, for who will hit the most home-runs, Young was the easy winner, getting 62% of the votes. Mark Reynolds made a credible showing, with 22%, and Conor Jackson came in third on 8%, though again, every nominee received at least one vote from somebody.

#1. Brandon Webb
2007: 3.01 ERA, 18-10, 1.19 WHIP
Bill James; 3.39, 16-10, 1.25
CHONE: 3.49, N/A, 1.27
Marcel: 3.39, 14-9, 1.27
MINER: 3.43, 15-9, 1.26
ZIPS: 3.01, 18-7, 1.14

Webb followed up his Cy Young award season by throwing more innings, striking out hitters faster, and dropping his ERA for the third-straight year. Where do you go from here? Well, it’ll be interesting to see what difference the arrival of Haren makes; in his five years with Arizona, Webb has never had a rotation-mate finish better than three games above .500. There’s now a legitimate #2 to back him up, and this could help take some pressure off Webb, in the same way the arrival of Curt Schilling allowed Randy Johnson to take his game to the next level.

Two things will help significantly. First, he needs to keep the walks down, and there are signs he can do this; in the first four months, he averaged 3.14 BB/9, but over the last two dropped that down to 1.94 BB/9. Also, whatever crypto-Satanic hold the Rockies have over Webb, needs to be broken. Even excluding the playoffs, they had a 5.77 ERA against our ace in six starts, and he managed only one win. Contrast, say, the Dodgers, against whom he was 4-0 with an ERA of 0.92. Expect teams to stack their lineups with lefties, who batted 73 points better against Webb last year; they’ll still struggle.
AZ SnakePit: 3.05, 19-9, 1.21 WHIP

#2. Dan Haren
2007: 3.07 ERA, 15-9, 1.21 WHIP
Bill James; 4.10, 12-10, 1.31
CHONE: 3.62, N/A, 1.19
Marcel: 3.80, 12-10, 1.24
MINER: 4.11, 14-11, 1.19
ZIPS: 3.92, 14-11, 1.20

With Haren having no history at Chase and no recent history in the National League [he did play for the Cardinals until 2005, before being traded to Oakland], it’s very hard to come up with numbers here. To what extent will the benefit that comes from facing the pitcher rather than a DH, be countered by moving from a pitcher-friendly park to the hitters’ haven which is Arizona? I’m not even sure whether the predictive numbers quoted above were made before the trade or after it, and so may or may not take these factors into account.

He has shown himself capable of eating innings, making 34 outings and throwing 217 or more innings each of the past three seasons, since he became a full-time starter. His K/9 ratio has improved too, from 6.76 to 7.10 to 7.76, while the walks have remained fairly constant, around 2.1 BB/9. Last year, he did fall off significantly after the All-Star break, opponents’ OPS going up from .583 to .813; this continued a trend seen in 2006 [.693/.775], and a large part was due to his home-run rate ballooning from 0.76 up to 1.25 HR/9. That concerns me, but Haren should still be a more solid and effective #2 than the systems seem to expect.
AZ SnakePit: 3.45, 15-9, 1.26

#3. Randy Johnson
2007: 3.81 ERA, 4-3, 1.15 WHIP
Bill James; 3.25, 9-5, 1.11, 119 IP
CHONE: 3.81, N/A, 1.19, 144 IP
Marcel: 4.46, 7-6, 1.30, 109 IP
MINER: 3.81, 9-7, 1.30, 135 IP
ZIPS: 3.99, 9-8, 1.15, 142 IP

The Big Unit is the Big Questionmark this year. How many innings will he pitch, seems at least as important a question as how well he will pitch in them. Most estimates seem to be moderate on this matter, which is what you’d expect, and average out round about the 22-25 starts at six innings per, mentioned by Bob McManaman in a recent article. However, those estimates ignore the fact that it won’t be enough to get the Big Unit to 300 wins. Except for the strike-shortened year of 1994, no full-time starter has won 16 in 25 or less starts since Spud Chandler went 16-5 in 1942 - and he had seventeen complete games.

Is that a significant driving force? If the Big Unit reaches the break on pace to come up a couple short and in a pennant chase, I think we could find him willing to go to the well more often down the stretch. All, of course, assuming he stays healthy. I’m thinking - okay, let’s be honest, hoping - we could see something like John Smoltz, who won 17 in 26 starts for the ‘98 Braves, pitching only 167.2 innings. Of course, he was 31, not 44. But dammit, this is Randy Johnson, the man who killed a bird with one pitch. I dream of a 300 remake, with Johnson yelling, “Madness? This is Arizona!” before kicking Johan Santana into the Grand Canyon. Dammit, despite paragraphs littered with “hope”, “assume” and “dream”, give me my optimism and let me be.
AZ SnakePit: 3.33, 16-6, 1.18, 165 IP

#4. Doug Davis
2007: 4.25 ERA, 13-12, 1.59 WHIP
Bill James; 4.36, 10-11, 1.47
CHONE: 4.50, N/A, 1.51
Marcel: 4,58, 10-10, 1.51
MINER: 4.52, 11-11, 1.54
ZIPS: 4.66, 10-12, 1.50

All being well, Davis will find himself at the back of the rotation, and on that basis, we don’t really need much more than him keeping us in games. He’s been at .500 or within one game of it, every year for the past five, and I don’t expect too much of that to change. The key thing is whether Davis can improve his control: last year, he hardly did so, shaving only 0.07 off his BB/9 rate, and a 1.59 WHIP is simply unsustainable with a 4.25 ERA. The signs aren’t good elsewhere: opponent’s BA increased and strikeout rate decreased, continuing the trend from 2006. Davis is now getting to the stage in his career where he can’t afford to walk people, because he will give up hits and can’t reach back for a K.

That said, it was clear in 2007 that Davis still occasionally had it, for example, the August 3rd game where he three-hit the Dodgers for eight innings in LA. But here’s the most telling stat, indicating how crucial control is to his success. In 13 starts when he walked two or less last season, Davis was 7-2; when he walked more than three, he went 2-6 in nine outings. But one thing likely won’t change: over the past four years, Davis has batted .069; that beats only Ian Snell’s .066 among all players with 100+ PAs. Doug truly is the anti-Owings. And that’s as good a segue was you can expect.
AZ SnakePit: 4.40, 12-12, 1.50

#5. Micah Owings
2007: 4.30 ERA, 8-8, 1.28 WHIP
Bill James; 4.32, 11-12, 1.39
CHONE: 4.50, N/A, 1.39
Marcel: 4,30, 7-7, 1.30
MINER: 4.41, 7-9, 1.30
ZIPS: 4.47, 8-9, 1.38

Interesting to note that Owings and Webb each made 29 starts in their first year for Arizona, both in their age 24 seasons. Obviously Webb’s performance on the mound was rather better [ERA 2.84 vs. 4.30] but it’s certainly possible Owings’ was the second-best year ever by a D-backs rookie pitcher, even discounting entirely the startling performance with the bat. That does have to be taken into account when assessing his value; basically, it’s likely Owings will rarely, if ever, be pinch-hit for, and this should extend his innings pitched in 2008.

He was a rookie, so it’s curious that none of the projection systems expect him to improve his performance this season. He got significantly better, even as the year wore on, dropping his ERA from 4.84 in the first half, to 3.72 after the break - in his final ten starts, covering 59.2 innings, opponents batted just .195 against Owings. Hell, even Jake Peavy allowed a higher BA last year (.208). We can’t really expect that over the course of 33 starts for Owings this year, but his performances should be among the best by a #5 starter in the National League. His hitting is merely an added bonus to that.
AZ SnakePit: 4.20, 12-9, 1.25 WHIP

Acknowledgment should be made of those outside the top five, though with no credible concept of how many starts they might get, projections are just about impossible. Edgar Gonzalez would seem to have the first shot at any spot starts needed, but we may also get contributions from Yusmeiro Petit, Billy Buckley and (if he survives the cut) Dustin Nippert. While we have solid starters in Webb, Haren and Davis - a minimum of 33 starts over the past three years by each member of the trio - and Owings should be good to go, rotation fillers are essential. We’ve never had more than three Arizona pitchers reach thirty starts, and over the first ten years have averaged 28 games per season from those outside the top five most-regular starters. I think our #6 starter(s) are as good as anyone else’s.

Today’s comment starter. Shouldn’t really need one today - I’m looking for your pitching projections, duh! But the bonus question for the projections is this: how many home-runs will Micah Owings hit in 2008?

Yesterday proved rather busy. I helped Mrs. SnakePit’s mother move in the morning. I found this list which ranks stressful live events on a scale from 1 to 100, but I think there must be a mistake: it ranks “change in residence” only as a 20; below, for example, “son or daughter leaving home,” which merits a 29. When the SnakePitette left recently, it was hardly stressful at all - mind you, it was her third such departure, so we’re getting used to them now. In comparison, spending your day moving someone else’s stuff…at the very least, my muscles will remind me of that for several days to come.

After that, we had a big IZW show over in Mesa at night, though I did get to pop into Bookman’s and picked up some obscurist second-hand DVDs cheap. AZDarkKnight and his family popped in for the show: didn’t really get a chance to speak to him, he left quite quickly after the event, but that may have been because of our heavyweight champion getting flung into their row of chairs. If we’d known that was going to happen, we’d have sat you somewhere else. Sorry! As a result, spare time - or, at least, spare time with an available Internet connection - was basically absent. Double entry today, however; first, a quick catch up on D-backs news, and later the third part of the community projections, concerning our starting pitchers. Before we get started, this headline in today’s Republic is a hands-down winner in the 2008 category for Stating the Bleedin’ Obvious. “Safety of shark-diving tours in baited waters questioned.” Surely not…

Yesterday’s game was a pretty lacklustre effort by the Diamondbacks, in particular from the offense - when Augie Ojeda is the only man who has any hits through the first six innings, you know it’s not a good day at the plate. Kudos to the Littlest Ballplayer for sticking it to his former team, though these are muted somewhat by his questionable attempt to score from third on a pop-up to second-base. That would have been doubtful if executed by Bonifacio, never mind someone who’s legs are rather shorter, and he was easily thrown out. Kelly came is a pinch-hitter for Lyon, walked and added a single, but Arizona were not helped by hitting into three double-plays; as well as Ojeda’s PIDP, we also had an LIDP and a more conventional GIDP.

Owings, having skipped his last start, returned to the mound; unfortunately the results were very poor, especially in a second inning that saw the Cubs plate four before Micah was finally removed with two outs, when he was originally scheduled to pitch another full frame. He never even got to bat, being lifted before his spot was reached. He was due to bat 7th, ahead of 1B Brito and CF Salazar in the starting lineup. Owings allowed five hits and three walks in only 1.2 innings, but refused to blame the layoff: “Arm felt great, body felt pretty good. I’ll take that.” He added, “I think I was a little quick on my front side, kind of carrying the ball a little bit, coming across my body. It’s something I’m going to resolve quickly.”

Things did perk up for our pitchers the rest of the way, starting with Reid Mahon, who struck out the last batter in the second. You might not have heard of Reid now, but mlb.com say, “he throws a sinking fastball in the range of 90-96 mph.” He only allowed two homers in 66.2 innings last year, in A, A+ and AA-ball: are we perhaps looking at Webb 2.0? We can but hope… The bullpen made the Cubs post nothing but zeros the rest of the way and the final combined line was impressive: three hits, one walk and nine strikeouts over 7.1 innings. Peguero and Qualls were particularly sharp, each pitching a perfect frame with a pair of K’s. Thanks to those who joined me in the Gameday Thread; Peachy, isoldout, soco and a slightly-buzzed, presumably at the game, shoewizard.

The big news is that Johnson will make his spring debut tomorrow, facing the Rockies down in Tucson. He had a side session before yesterday’s game in Mesa, but had no comment for reporters afterward. “This is exactly where we kind of had it mapped out to be, but we weren’t going to get too far ahead of ourselves,” Melvin said. I believe the team have asked the Rockies to use the DH in the game tomorrow, and Colorado have obliged, so that will keep Johnson from having to take any swings. He still has yet to take any fielding practice; if the Rockies were feeling cruel, they might look to drop down a few bunts towards the pitcher’s mound tomorrow. Surely they wouldn’t be that cruel. :-S

That would make Johnson perhaps a week behind the other pitchers, so he’d probably miss no more than one start, all being well. Of course, a lot will depend on how things progress from there. The Big Unit’s next scheduled start could well be Saturday, and we’ll be at that game, so will have to see if we can get some video of Johnson pitching. If he keeps pitching on a five-day rotation, he’d get a total of four starts while the Cactus League is on, with the last coming on March 25th. The Diamondbacks can probably organize something down at minor-league camp to polish Johnson off, until he’s ready to go.

Miguel Montero is getting better, and has been cleared to take part in “light activity” for another week; he won’t be given the go-ahead for full baseball activity until next weekend, at the very earliest. Opening Day remains unlikely: according to Melvin, “Once he gets in some games and if he feels comfortable real quick and is doing enough to keep himself physically in shape, then it’s just based on how many at-bats we can get him without rushing him.” It still seems probable that Robby Hammock will start the season on the roster, as backup to Snyder.

The Tribune also discusses batting order, and says “The D-Backs front four appears fairly set - [Chris] Young, Orlando Hudson, Conor Jackson and [Eric] Byrnes.” Beyond that, there seems to be more question-marks; generally, I’d say something like Reynolds, Upton, Snyder and Drew. But with Drew the only full-time left-handed bat in the lineup, they may want to have him higher in the line-up than his production would generally merit, to avoid a chasm of unremitting right-handedness between switch-hitter Hudson at #2, and Drew at the bottom. This is where the losses of Montero and Tracy will hurt; Jeff Salazar may get more starts while those two are unavailable, simply to get another southpaw in the lineup.

Listening to today’s game against the Mariners. Seattle have just retaken the lead, on a bases-loaded single, and are ahead 4-3 in the middle of the fourth. Brandon Webb is pitching for the Diamondbacks today, and the results have been poor: in four innings of work, he has allowed eight hits and four runs, though struck out five. Arizona has had only two hits, but one of those was a double by Jeff Burke which cleared the bases and gave us a 3-2 lead in the second. I’ll keep listening, since it’ll give me something to do while I work on the pitching projections…

Today’s comment starter: who do you think will win the NL Central? Are the Cubs going to repeat their division title, on the 100th anniversary of their last World Series victory? Or will the Brewers avoid their disastrous second-half slump - they were 7.5 games up at the end of June - and ride their fearsome offense to their first post-season appearance since 1982? And do the rest of the teams, none better than 78 wins last year, have any realistic chance at all?

Wow, that’s a bit of a mouthful as a title today: hope you can pick the sense out of it! Started work on the third part of the Community Projections, but I ran out of time, and there’s now no way that’s going to get finished tonight. So consider this a stop-gap kind of entry until I get that finished off. Two games for the price of one for the Diamondbacks today; the good news was mostly the game against the White Sox, where we crushed Chicago 10-0. Jesus Mercham was the star, going 3-for-4, including a bases-loaded double, and four runs batted in overall. But Alex Romero had two hits, while Hammock and Salazar each reached safely twice, with a hit and a walk.

Edgar Gonzalez and a four-pack of relievers combined on a five-hit shutout of the Sox. Gonzalez extended his scoreless streak with three innings of work, striking out two and allowing three hits. Cruz, Enright, Roemer and Robertson restricted Chicago to two hits and one walk over the remaining six innings: the last-named was particularly sharp, striking out three and giving up one hit in two innings. All told, our pitchers faced only three hitters over the minimum, thanks to the help of a double-play and Bonifacio nailing a runner at third.

Not so good news at the Peoria Sports Complex, where the other half of the roster went down 6-3 to the Padres. The Diamondbacks came down from an early deficit, courtesy of none other than Scott Hairston, batting lead-off for San Diego. He smacked the first pitch of the game from Doug Davis out of the park, and then added a two-run double the next inning. Pitching to the rest of the lineup, Davis was a bit better; overall, four hits and a walk in three innings of work, but also three earned runs, all courtesy of Hairston.

Arizona did come back, getting two in the fourth, courtesy of RBI singles from Eric Byrnes and Chris Snyder, and then tied the game up in the fifth, with another RBI, this time from Orlando Hudson. The game stayed tied until Rosen came in, allowing a hit, three walks and a wild pitch while retiring precisely one hitter. A double off Nippert led to Rosen being tagged with three earned runs in a rather catastrophic seventh inning. We managed only six hits all game: Conor Jackson had a particularly bad day, going 0-for-4 with two double-plays, leaving seven men on base and making an error. Young and Reynolds each had a hit and a walk, while Tony Peña threw a perfect sixth.

Nick Piecoro discusses the likelihood of us trading Medders or Nippert, saying “The more scouts I talk to, the more convinced I am that neither Brandon Medders nor Dustin Nippert will pass through waivers unclaimed.” However, with the way the numbers are shaking down on the roster - and Doug Slaten looking more and more likely to be ready in time for Opening Day - it seems likely one or other will be traded before Opening Day. Nippert is 16 months younger, and his experience as a starter makes him more valuable. However, he has much less major league experience (only 70 innings) and an ERA there of 6.43 doesn’t seem anything to write home about. When he’s good, he’s very. very good, but when he’s bad… Hoo-boy.

Medders has almost twice as many innings under his belt (131.2) and an overall ERA for his career of 3.36 - that’s an ERA+ of 139, which is comparable with, say, Jose Valverde (141). However, after a fine 2006 campaign, he seemed unquestionably shaky during last season - we’ve rehashed before his one-pitch destruction of a three-run seventh-inning lead against the Phillies - and got sent down to Tucson. But despite that, his overall numbers weren’t bad: a 4.30 ERA is respectable for a reliever. Maybe we can get him only to pitch at Chase, where over his entire career he had held opposing hitters to a .208 average. That’s ninety-three points less than on the road, and their OPS is 231 points lower at home too.

So, today’s comment starter: which one do we keep?

Our turn to cough up a lead here: Arizona took a three-run lead in the second, on an RBI double by Chris Burke and a two-run single from Orlando Hudson. However, Kansas City chipped away at that, after Dan Haren left the game, and had tied the game by the bottom of the ninth inning. Jailen Peguero came in to take over there…and lasted exactly one pitch, Ryan Shealy swatting his very first offering out to left, for a walkoff home-run. Not quite the effort we hoped for, and can not even really be counted as getting his work in.

Dan Haren was pretty solid, posting three scoreless innings with two hits, a walk and three strikeouts. According to Steve Gilbert, Haren is working on elevating his fastball. Haren usually goes to a split-fingered fastball down in the zone, as his strikeout pitch, but this extra weapon in his arsenal could help keep hitters honest. Said Haren, “I focus so much on staying low in the zone, it’s something I’ve just kind of beat into my brain, and [pitching coach Bryan Price] wants me to elevate once in a while.” Hard to say whether anything will come of this, but it’s what spring training is about.

After Haren left the game, Fruto took over and allowed two unearned runs in his two innings: the error which led to the scores was charged to him, as he bobbled the ball covering first - but shoe was at the game, and reported over on DBBP that Jackson was lucky not to be tagged with the E. [Oden also posted some pics from the game]. Ambriz allowed a home-run in his two innings of work, but Medders continued his impressive run with a perfect eighth innings. Said Melvin, “He’s going right after guys. I know it’s Spring Training, but still it just seems like he’s re-energized and re-focused for a guy that a couple of years ago was really quite the prospect.”

At the plate, Chris Snyder continued his torrid start to the season, going 2-for-2; his 18 total bases thus far is trailing only Tori Hunter in the majors this spring. [While scoping that out, a quick nod to the Giants’ Ryan Rohlinger: he has only had one at-bat this spring, but homered against the Cubs. Oh, as a pinch-hitter. And did I mention it was a grand-slam? Somewhat related, today’s trivia: Keith McDonald played eight games for St. Louis in 2000 and 2001, going 3-for-9. What is his claim to fame?] Chris Burke went 2-for-3 as the DH, though in contrast to the game we saw where he batted lead-off, was down in the #8 spot today.

One week into Spring Training, and time to take a look at who’s impressing - or otherwise - among our players. I trust I need not go into the obvious caveats here: firstly, small sample size, and secondly, it’s spring training. As a reality check, last year, Alberto Callaspo, Miguel Montero and Brian Barden hit .396 or better in the Cactus League. How did that work out/ So, really, this is more for amusement than anything significant. That said - first, the hitters and then the pitchers. All figures are through Thursday.

• Chris Snyder: 8-for-13, 2 HR, 18 total bases
• Geraldo Parra: 8-for-13
• Emilio Bonifacio: 6-for-14, 1.185 OPS
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• Jeff Salazar: 2-for-13, .586 OPS
• Augie Ojeda: 4-for-18, .485 OPS
• Robby Hammock: 1-for-11, 0 BB, 3 K

• Dan Haren: 5 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
• Bill Murphy: 4.1 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
• Brandon Medders: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
  ——————————
• Jailen Peguero: 2.2 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
• Barry Enright: 1.1 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
• Dustin Nippert: 3 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K

Long article on Eric Byrnes outside the sports section in the Republic, talking mostly about how marriage won’t change him. I have to say, being Mrs. Eric Byrnes would seem to be the kind of job that would tax the patience of St. Penelope of the Cross, but new wife Tarah - they got married during the off-season - dated for seven years, so I imagine she has got a fair idea of what to expect! She says, “It wasn’t traditional, but I don’t believe Eric and I are, in a lot of ways. It took me a long time to get that he wasn’t dating a new girl in a new port. His character is above it.” Y’know, I don’t doubt that for a moment: there seems general agreement that what you see with Byrnes is basically exactly what you get.

Monthly chat with Derrick Hall on the D’backs site today - looks like dstorm got in a couple of questions! Couple of interesting points, not least regarding concession prices, long a personal sore point. According to Hall, “We are working on pricing with our concessionaire now. We have asked them to reduce the price of every item on their menus and they have agreed to do so.” Emphasis added. Assuming this is not a token nickel-and-dime reduction, I think I speak for all fans, when I say, ‘W00t.’ Given the relentless trend of price increases, that is a significant win and may force me to rethink our plans to picnic at the park. Now, if he can just expand the $4 beer offer to include something that resembles actual beer… Stella Artois or Pilsner Urquell would be fine. K THX BAI.

He also talks about the club’s relationship with Mexico, and seems keen to make the Hermosillo trip an annual one. “It actually takes less time to bus to the airport, fly there, play the game, fly back, and bus back to the complex than it does to travel and play in Surprise,” according to Hall. Though this probably says more about Surprise than it does about Hermosillo. He also mentioned the warm-up game against Mexican champions, the Monterrey Sultanes, the Saturday before Opening Day, saying “with all of our Hispanic marketing efforts, we hope this will attract a few new fans to try out a game at Chase.” Well, I guess at least having most of the crowd cheering for the visitors, will be good practice for the Cubs series. [Though must say, that proved much less so in 2007 than previously - a trend I want to see continue in 2008]

Finally, the answer to the trivia question, what’s Keith McDonald’s claim to fame? His 3-for-9 career figure is not especially memorable - except that all three hits were homers. He also tied a record, by homering in his first two major league at-bats. He was with the Yankees AAA affiliated in 2006, but seems to have now retired, so his immaculate record looks safe. And today’s comment starter: ballpark food. What’s your favorite, either at Chase or any other park?

This one probably counts as daylight robbery, since we were one-hit by the Chicago trio of Carlos Zambrano, Rich Hill and Michael Wuertz through the first seven innings of today’s game. We were at least on the board, thanks to Justin Upton managing to just avoid an inning-ending double-play in the bottom of the fourth, but that still left us trailing 4-1 in the eighth. Max Scherzer’s outing had been nothing to write home about - four strikeouts over two innings is good, but this was countered by four hits, including two which left Tucson Electric Park. Somewhat embarrassingly, one of those was by Zambrano - though he is by no means a rabbit, having smacked six homers in 2006.

The eighth inning proved significantly better, however. It was the B-prospects that did the damage: Jesus Merchan, fresh from homering off Johnson, started the run with an RBI single, right-fielder Rahl repeated the medicine and Alex Romero went one better with a two-run single. Somehow, we managed to score five runs on, not just four hits, but only four total bases - that’s the same output as the opposing starting pitcher. If we can manage that level of offensive efficiency for the rest of the season, we should be okay. That’s probably about the most optimistic thing I can take out of our performance at the plate today.

The focus may have been on Scherzer today, but as far as performance goes, he was overshadowed by Gutierrez, who started the game for the Diamondbacks. He pitched two very nice innings, retiring all six hitters he faced, including three strikeouts. Certainly, a huge improvement on the five hits, one walk and a hit batter he delivered in his first outing for us. After Scherzer’s wobbly session, Rosales allowed a run on two hits over the fifth and sixth inning; Brown then got the win for two innings of one-hit ball, and Bill Murphy vultured up the save with the scoreless ninth. Drew and his “flulike” symptoms were out for the second day, and Bonifacio also missed the game, after his beaning on Tuesday.

shoe points out an interesting piece in the Republic: “Johnson and the team are in agreement that his starts and innings may have to be limited this season to get the maximum out of the pitcher without overtaxing him and risk losing him early to a setback. That means instead of making 32 or so starts, Johnson could conceivably make anywhere from 22 to 25 starts.” It’s difficult to say how much of this is mind-games - and also how much of it is simply McManaman speculating. The figures lack any kind of attribution, so at the moment do not seem to have come from anyone with direct knowledge of the plans for the season. If Melvin or Johnson had actually said the Big Unit was going to miss one start in three, I think it would have made a bigger splash.

Otherwise, though, not too much to report in the world of the Diamondbacks. Personally, I tend to feel that the initial thrill of Spring Training - look! It’s baseball! - has now somewhat worn off. These games are already beginning to feel like meaningless exercises, empty of all truth, and almost a mocking parody of reality; the sporting equivalent of a Cinemax late-night skin flick, perhaps. I have, however, now booked Opening Day, March 31st off work. It’s the first time I’ve done that, but I was told today that my vacation bank has now maxed out at 15 days; probably related to not having missed a day since I started there.

With no imminent long break in sight, I’ll therefore be taking about a day per month off, just to keep my vacation bank from overflowing: I checked, and my employers won’t pay me out for it, so I am therefore forced (forced!) to take time off. This actually starts tomorrow with a half-day, but I figured that Monday 31st March would be a good one to miss. The D-backs play their first game of the 2008 regular season in Cincinnati that afternoon, which makes it an 11:05 am start here in Arizona. That means the odds of me being able to follow the game or comment to any significant degree are pretty close to zero. And did I mention that Mondays also suck in general?

The April day off is scheduled for the 25th; we’ll be in Los Angeles that weekend for the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors, a convention where the special guests will include such luminaries as George Romero and Clive Barker. Somewhat irritatingly, we’ll just miss the Diamondbacks, who will just have left town after finishing a series against the Dodgers the day before, and will be in San Diego. Hmmm, can I talk Mrs. SnakePit into tacking an additional day on to the trip and getting us to Chavez Ravine in time for Thursday night’s game in LA? That’d be fun; I have been to the park before, but not to see Arizona, as I recall. Not that Dodger Stadium is up to much, to be honest: it has all the problems of an elderly stadium, with none of the Fenwayesque charm, in my opinion. But if the Diamondbacks are there, it takes on a whole new mystique…

Comment starter: what are your plans for Opening Day?

When we do our SnakePit Fantasy Baseball draft in a few weeks, it’s going to be interesting to see exactly how high Conor Jackson gets picked. There seems to be a serious amount of optimism regarding Jackon’s prospects for the upcoming season, and today will have done nothing to dispell that. He started off with a two-run triple in the first, as part of a Diamondbacks’ four-run inning. That, alone, is worthy of note: we oohed over his stolen base on Sunday, but triples have been even rarer, with just two in his 310-game major-league career. Going by recent events, it looks as if the off-season training regime - already apparent over the weekend in the pair of tree-trunks attached to Jackson’s shoulders - may have also boosted his speed.

Jackson then capped that, coming to the plate with the bases-loaded in the fourth, and smacking a grand-slam off the appropriately-named Loe in the fourth. That gave Arizona a 9-2 lead, and we cruised to victory thereafter, in the first non-Tucson game of the year for the team, at Surprise Stadium. [When I am driving around the 101 and see the signs for that town, I always feel there is somehow an exclamation mark is missing… Surprise!] Also getting in on the fun were Chris Snyder, who had two hits including his second homer of the year, and Justin Upton, who followed Jackson’s first-inning triple with a homer of his own.

Not so happy was Emilio Bonifacio, hit on the head by a wild pitch from Texas starter Gabbard. He was flat on his back for several minutes after having had his bell rung, but eventually got up and walking, with some assistance, to the clubhouse. He seems to be okay, though after the game was bearing the scars of his encounter. Never a good thing when a player gets clocked like that. Stephen Drew also missed the game, being scratched from the line up because of “flu-like symptoms”. This always seemed like a questionable term: either they’re flu symptoms, or they’re not; I’m not quite sure where this middle-ground of “flu-like” appeared from.

Meanwhile, Brandon Webb took the mound for his second start of spring, and was his usual sinkerful self, getting eight of the nine outs on groundballs, with the ninth coming on a strikeout. He did allow two runs in his three innings, on four hits, but he seemed happy: “Yeah, that’s kind of where I want to be. Basically just trying to get ahead and get some early groundball outs… I just got a little work in, threw some curveballs in there. I didn’t get a chance to throw any the first game.” After that, we got to see our new 7-8-9 guys, in Qualls, Peña and Lyon, though for some reason they sent them out with Lyon as the meat in the sandwich. Remarkably uniform lines:
Qualls, Lyon and Peña, each: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 K
Billy Buckner gave us a scoreless seventh and eighth, before the Petit Unit allowed a run on three hits in the ninth.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Surprise area, Randy Johnson threw another session of batting practice, 36 pitches split to simulate two innings. Jesus Mercham apparently hit a homer off Johnson, from the first pitch of the second batch. No word on whether the one came in high and tight, but even if he never makes it to the majors, Mercham can now always say he homered off a Hall of Fame pitcher. He might do well to not mention that fact that it was on a back field, in spring training. Johnson said afterwards, “Everything has been a step in the right direction, no setbacks or anything. My endurance has come along. We’ll see how things go from there, but obviously the next step would be to pitch in a game. When? I don’t know, but soon hopefully.” That could be as early as Monday. Kewl. Not least because that would probably make his next appearance on Saturday. When we’ll be there…

Finally, I know it’s only spring training, and stats are entirely meaningless, but I just wanted to share this thoroughly amusing line from yesterdays Giants-Rangers contest.
Lowry: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 SO, 9 BB
Let me repeat that. Noah Lowry gave up four runs, all earned, without allowing a single hit - because he walked nine of the twelve batters he faced. This included the first five, and it took 25 pitches to provoke a swing from the Rangers hitters. They batted around without recording an official at-bat, on seven walks and two sacrifice flies. That brings Lowry’s spring totals to 58 balls, 27 strikes and 12 walks over 2 1/3 innings. Is anyone else heartily amused by this?

The two halves of the team re-united after the split-squad games on Sunday. Startling to realise that Justin Upton could have used his trip to Mexico as a chance to enjoy a legal drink, something he won’t be able to have here in America until August 25th. He’ll be facing the Padres on the road that day, so will be able to roam the Gaslamp District, which is the closest thing San Diego has to compare with a weekend in Tijuana. I always say, the best way to judge a city is by its sleaziest area. And let’s just say, I did a fair amount of judging when I travelled round Europe in my youth. [Hey, I was on a very slim budget, what can I say? You know where the cheapest hotels are…]

Much as I’m tempted to list my five top European destinations, I think we’d better move on before this becomes another edition of Jim Divulges Too Much Information. Pitching today for Arizona was Micah Ow…no, wait! He was scratched from the start because of what was described as ‘general arm soreness’. According to the club, this is entirely unconnected with his DH-ing on Sunday, but I am not entirely convinced by that; let’s just say, some of the “first pitch hacking” (TM Thom Brennaman Enterprises, Inc.) made my arms hurt. Melvin said, “He’s had some stiffness throwing the last several days, so rather than having him go out there with some stiffness and some soreness we’re just going to bump him back to his next start.” But, they were happy to let him DH? While I appreciate it’s probably a different set of muscles, I’d have dumped the at-bats first.

Replacing him was Dustin Nippert, and the results were singularly unimpressive once again, with three runs on two hits and two walks in two innings, all of them coming on a homer by Hawpe. Going in to this spring, it seemed all but certain that Nippert and EdGon would get the last two spots in the bullpen, with Brandon Medders the odd one out. However, thus far…
Pitcher B: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 BB, 3 K, 0 ER
Pitcher D: 3 IP, 6 H, 3 BB, 1 K, 6 ER
Pitcher E: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K, 0 ER
One of these things is not like the other, children. Said Nippert, “Right now, I’m just trying to establish my fastball. Once I establish that I think my other pitches will come. I’m just not able to throw it for strikes effectively early in counts and I’m getting behind, and then when I am able to throw strikes I’m behind and they are waiting on it.” Obviously, we’re still talking almost-irrelevant sample sizes, but if this keeps up, it could get interesting.

The rest of the game was an episode of Whose (Pitching) Line is it, Anyway? with the remaining seven innings thrown by people of whom you’ve probably never heard. In the interests of increasing awareness, here is our handy guide to the non-Nippert pitchers who appeared in today’s game:

• Connor Robertson - The other player we got from the A’s, as part of the Dan Haren trade. Had a cup of coffee in the majors last year, but pitched 31 innings out of the bullpen for their AAA affiliate, with a 4.35 ERA.
• Clint Goocher - Has been stuck in Double-A since the middle of 2004. A starter turned reliever, he had a credible 3.42 ERA for Mobile last year, but will be 26 by the All-Star break, so time is not on his side.
• Matt Elliott - Struggled a bit in his first full season with Mobile, posting a 4.29 ERA; his control has always been his main problem [100 walks in only 192.2 minor-league innings]. Does strike out hitters at a good rate though.
• AJ Shappi - Not allowed to say anything bad here, since his #1 fan posts over at DBBP. Also switched to the bullpen last year, and improved as a result, with a 3.66 ERA for Mobile. Only walked 17 in 76.1 innings.
• Mark Rosen - It seems the entire Mobile bullpen pitched today… 50 games for Rosen there, and at a 3.12 ERA, one of the better arms there, it seems. Good K:BB ratio of 78:22, in 66.1 innings.
• Chris Kinsey - Hooray! Kinsey played for Mobile, but switched back to being a starter after a bullpen stint in 2006. Went 4-7 in 28 games, with a rather flabby 4.51 ERA, and an indifferent K:BB as well, at 84:60.

At the plate, the entire offense was accounted for by two men. Chris Young got his first hit of the year, with a homer - solo, naturally - in the third, and also doubled home a run in the fifth. Then, in the final frame, Donnie Kelly smashed a three-run homer to right-field, which gave the score a touch more respectability than it probably deserved. Orlando Hudson reached base safely three times, on a triple and two walks, but the side as a whole managed just seven hits. That is definitely a downturn, compared to the ten hits managed in the first four innings alone, during yesterday’s game in Tucson.

Robby Hammock wants to be a catcher. No real surprise there, though looking at the career stats, he hits rather better as a left-fielder [.352/.397/.519] than as a catcher [.240/.306/.392]. The former is in only 54 at-bats, however. Seems likely the latter is what’ll be his ticket on to the roster, assuming Montero is not ready for action, but it does give us a little more flexibility. On the other hand, it’s unlikely Hammock will be gratuitously used as a pinch-hitter, as if he were, and anything were then to happen to Snyder, we’d be left without a catcher. Good comment from Melvin on Hammock’s strength behind the plate, that also sheds some light onto the wisdom and guile required by a good catcher.

I wonder if they’ve ever done any research into what position spawns most baseball managers? I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be catcher. Obviously, it’s the case for Arizona, where both Bob Brenly and Bob Melvin are former catchers. Buck Showalter never made it to the majors [seven years in the Yankees farm system instead], but was an outfielder. Didn’t realise old Bucky was now working in the Indians front-office, having been fired by Texas in 2006: unlike New York and Arizona, Texas did not win the World Series the year after dumping Showalter…

The Diamondbacks emphatically ended a streak going back almost five months, to the final game of the NLDS, getting their first victory in eight attempts, by crushing the Chicago White Sox in a split-squad game at Tucson Electric Park this afternoon, 12-5, in front of 7,361. A little later, the other half of the roster also beat the White Sox, rallying from a 5-0 deficit down in Hermosillo, Mexico, before a crowd of 12,855. Since we were at the first game, that’s where we’ll concentrate our efforts.

I was picked up by shoe, tap and tmar just after 9 am, though not before being getting a call to my cel-phone from a Denver Post reporter. After I’d pontificated at some legth on the Rockies-D’backs rivalry [hey, at least he didn’t ask me about the Denver Players Club…], he then replied with “And as a follow-up question: can we pick you up in about five minutes?” Yes, I’d been magnificently punked by tap, who can attest to the string of expletives which flowed freely from my lips as a result. Fine work.

It being a Sunday morning, we made good time down the road, picking up Matt on the way, and arriving at TEP just before the gates opened. The intention had been to see batting practice, but it appears that takes place elsewhere on the complex, and the grass was untroubled by players until they began taking their warmups shortly before the game. However, the concession stands were open, so beers were quaffed and we rejoiced in the simple joy of, once again, being inside a baseball park for a game. The long, dark winter was finally over! Wandered round for a bit, explored the team shop and picked up a remaindered NLCS Series T-shirt for $5. That was particularly sweet, having “laughed and walked away” from the same T-shirts during the series itself, when they were hideously over-priced at $32.

Our tickets were five rows behind the D-backs on-deck circle, and the ones just in front were, surprisingly, unoccupied, so that gave us plenty of additional opportunity to spread out. The front row seemed to be occupied by someone of note from the White Sox organization, judging by how often people came down to shake him by the hand, etc. Think his name was Tom, but beyond that, we’ve got no idea. We were really more concerned with our own players; a split-squad game meant that we only had about half the regulars starting, but also gave us a good chance to scope out some of the bench players and prospects on the roster.

It was one of those who got the game off to the best possible start for Arizona. Chris Burke, playing third-base and hitting leadoff, crushed a change-up from ex-Diamondback Javier Vazquez to right-center, to open the top of the first inning - it was particularly sweet, having been well behind the previous pitch, a fastball. Burke also showed good discipline at the top of the order, following up his home-run with three walks, and played well at third. He’s looking like a pretty decent pick-up, and will likely be particularly important if, as seems likely, Tracy isn’t ready by Opening Day.

After some shaky performances in the first three games, it was good to see our offense get its act together, assisted by Javier Vazquez serving up batting practice [five hits, two walks and five earned runs in 2.1 innings]. By the middle of the fourth innings, we had romped out to a 9-0 lead, with Chris Snyder and Trot Nixon both following Burke in going deep. Snyder, in particular, had a good day, with two doubles to add to his homer. Nixon had two hits and a walk, starting in right-field and Ojeda, playing shortstop, also had two hits. The split-squad also meant that players tended to stay in the game longer than in the previous contests: Burke came to the plate six times; Jackson, Salazar and Owings five each.

Micah (above) was, as noted previously, our DH and also batted eighth in the lineup, ahead of Augie. The results were somewhat mixed: he went 1-for-5, and seemed to be mostly concerned with the “Hitter” part of Designated Hitter, swinging aggressively at the first pitch on most of his at-bats. He’s expected to hit seventh tomorrow, when he’ll be pitching. Though our seats were sheltered, there was a very stiff breeze blowing left-to-right - the flags in the outfield were virtually flying horizontal for much of the game, and it definitely put a chill on things for fans sitting in the grass beyond the outfield walls. It didn’t help the fielders either: Jeff Salazar clanked one off his glove in center [from ex-D’back Carlos Quentin], and Augie Ojeda missed entirely a towering, swirling pop-up. Both were, somewhat charitably, scored hits.

On the mound, the ‘A’ pitchers did well. Doug Davis (below) threw two hitless innings, though did walk two men in the second, and benefited from a smartly-turned double-play, started by Burke. Brandon Medders followed him, and added two more zeroes, with three strikeouts, including a brutal dissection of Quentin, who still seems to be every bit as vulnerable to sliders down and away in a White Sox uniform, as he was in a Diamondbacks one. Green and Roemer were next up, and neither exactly shined: five hits, three earned runs for the former, four hits and a walk, two earned runs for the latter. However, by the time Green appeared, we had reached double-digits and Chicago were still to get off the mark, so the impact of their shakiness was lessened. Fruto followed with a perfect ninth, after we’d added two more runs, to complete a comprehensive and very satisfactory victory.

Game Notes

• Finally got to hand over the ‘trophy’ to the winner of the 2007 AZ SnakePit Fantasy Baseball league, as Otacon was present at the game. Good to meet him, and relieve our “Diamondbacks cabinet” of the weight of one excess Orlando Hudson bobblehead.

• Inevitably, Superfan Susan was there, in the section next to ours, immediately behind the Diamondbacks dugout. I think, after some initial qualms, I’ve finally ‘got’ her attitude, and am cool with it: she is basically the team mom, always enthusiastic, up-beat and encouraging. I almost expected her to go into the dugout and hand out orange slices between innings.

• Conor Jackson stole a base. We don’t see that often [three career, in 310 major-league games], but he got a beautiful jump off first and took the bag easily. Kirk Gibson was managing for AZ, Melvin being with the other half of the team, and I presume he gave the steal sign. Before Jackson’s next at-bat, when he was standing in the on-deck circle, I yelled at him, “We’ll have to call you GoJack from now on.” Judging by the nod of appreciation with which he responded, I think he liked that…
  

  

• It must be odd for Quentin to be playing for the White Sox, after so many years, either with Arizona or Tucson. The general consensus is that we wish him all the best: it’s certainly a lot easier to root for him, playing in the American League, than for Hairston. [tmar still has some of the ‘Free Scott Hairston’ shirts from last year - any Padres fans interested?]

• Big props to Shoe for driving us down there, and especially to tap for being the designated driver on the way home. Though he should be aware that I will have my revenge for his little joke. Oh, yes, I shall…

Meanwhile, down in Hermosillo, the other half of the team were staging a sterling comeback to take victory. 5-0 down in the bottom of the sixth, and still 6-2 down in the bottom of the eighth, they scored twice there and added three runs in the bottom of the ninth to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Romero, playing left-field, was the player of the game with three hits and a trio of RBI, while DH Justin Upton went 3-for-3. Parra’s perfect season came to an end though: he went 1-for-4, reducing his spring batting average to a mere .700…

On the mound, Edgar Gonzalez gave the D-backs two perfect innings to start with. But Enright coughed up a major phlegm-globber of a performance, allowing six hits and a walk while retiring four batters. The middle-relief arms of Ambriz and Peguero were somewhat ho-hum, but Bill Murphy picked up the victory, retiring all four hitters he faced. The fielding was somewhat up and down: we picked off two White Sox, but also saw three errors, committed by Parra, Reynolds and Mercham. Bonifacio can’t have been feeling well, as he hit into a double-play and was also caught stealing - both most un-Bonifaciolike.

Finally, couple of links that might be of interest. Bizofbaseball.com has an interview with Jeff Moorad. And in the Republic, Nick Piecoro talks about and to Chris Burke - based on today’s performance, I certainly look forward to seeing more of Mr. Burke in a Diamondbacks’ uniform.