SB Nation - Daniel Cabrera

Where In The World Is The Washington Nationals' Elijah Dukes? [UPDATED: 6:28 pm EST 11/9]

Ed Chigliak — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:42:38 -0000

More photos » by Brian Blanco - AP

(ed. note - "Within 12 hours of posting this story, fans of Elijah Dukes, who were wondering when or even if he'd make his way down to the Dominican Winter League to play with the Tigres del Licey, got an answer. According to an article by Daniel Rufenacht at Licey.com (the team's official site) entitled, (or roughly translated as) "Major League Infield":

"In the Dominican league, until the middle of November, the teams play inexperienced players, veterans of smaller leagues and Mexico...

...In the next few days, Elijah Dukes, Jose Batista and Felix Pie will be integrated into the Tigres' roster."

When he arrives in the Dominican Republic, Dukes will join Nationals' infielder Ian Desmond and former Nationals Wily Mo Pena, Emiliano Bonifacio, Bernie Castro, Anderson Hernandez and Daniel Cabrera in the Licey lineup, as he attempts to work on hitting the breaking balls Dukes identified as his main weakness at the plate in several year-ending articles...Read the original story after the JUMP...")

(ed. note - "Thanks, and a head nod to FB.com regular CD3K for tracking down the article and providing the initial translations.")

In early September several sources reported that Washington Nationals' outfielder Elijah Dukes would be playing Winter Ball with the Tigres del Licey this offseason as he attempted to address what he saw as his main weakness at the plate, hitting the curve. Washington Post writer Chico Harlan spoke with Dukes about his plans in an article entitled, "At Pivotal Point in Career, Dukes Trying To Step It Up", in which Dukes explained that he didn't need to take the winter off:

"I don't really want no time off," Dukes said. "I just want to keep seeing it, keep seeing it, until spring training of next year. I just haven't figured it out yet. . . . The curveball is the last piece."

So where is Elijah Dukes? He hasn't played in the DWL yet?

MLB.com's Bill Ladson, who wrote about Dukes' winter plans in the DWL in a 9/5/09 blog post entitled, "Elijah Dukes to play winter ball", talked about the 25-year-old outfielder in the most recent edition of Mr. Ladson's "Inbox: What role will Morse play", where he responded to a question about pursuing free agent outfielder Jermaine Dye by stating that he sees Dukes as the Nationals' '09 right fielder:

"I don't see Dukes on the bench. As I say that, the 2010 season is the year Dukes must show that he can reach his full potential."

But there was no mention of what Dukes is doing right now to improve his chances of winning the job in right field or work on hitting curves...As of Sunday, Dukes' name was not on the Tigres' roster...Emiliano Bonifacio played right field for Licey last night...Anyone know when or if Dukes will be playing in the DWL?

Link: When Dukes played in the DWL in 2007, he had reported to the Tigres del Licey by the first week of October...

Farewell: Chad Tracy, Yusmeiro Petit, Doug Slaten, Daniel Cabrera (and maybe Alex Romero and Trent Oeltjen)

Jim McLennan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:05:45 -0000

More photos » by Rick Scuteri - AP

Chad Tracy gets high fives from Josh Whitesell and Augie Ojeda after hitting a three-run homer against the Pirates in July. Chad's now gone: who else will be left?

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With a hat-tip to Amit for the first news, a flurry of roster moves for the Diamondbacks the morning after the World Series - albeit most of them not entirely unexpected. Chad Tracy had his buyout exercised, while Daniel Cabrera, Trent Oeltjen and Alex Romero were outrighted to Reno. Cabrera has also elected to become a free agent instead, and it's possible Oeltjen and Romero may follow - ladylike weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth to follow. Yusmeiro Petit was picked up off waivers by the Mariners, and Doug Slaten went similarly to the Nationals. The 40-man roster now has five vacant spots left on it, after the moves.

Not really any surprises here. However, I'll write a bit more about these decisions in Saturday's round-up.

This Week in AZ Baseball: prospects injury news, winter ball report and a "to-do" list.

Jim McLennan — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 01:00:20 -0000

We ate at Mrs. White's Golden Rule Cafe last night - it's the one on Jefferson, almost diagonally opposite the NE corner of Chase Field. First time we've actually ever been, even though I've driven past it on the way to work every day for almost three years now! I believe it was one of Orlando Hudson's favorite places to eat when he was with the Diamondbacks, and do have to say, the Chicken Fried Steak was phenomenal, a deliciously-moist concoction which has supplanted the previous best in Phoenix, that of the Texaz Grill on 16th Street. The walls are covered with signatures from previous famous diners; a lot of sports people in general, though I'd hardly have called the food part of a nutritious diet. Junior Spivey's signature was just above our table.

Anyway, leading off the news this week is that our 2007 first-round draft-pick, Jarrod Parker, will have Tommy John surgery on Wednesday. We also take a look at the performances of our players in winter ball, and paw over some suggestions for what the Diamondbacks need to do over the winter. Join us after the jump for all that, and more

The Diamondbacks first-round pick in 2007, Jarrod Parker, will be having Tommy John surgery on Wednesday. The team had initially hoped to avoid surgery for the problem, which first cropped up at the end of July, but the issue didn't appear to resolve itself, so an operation has been scheduled. It means he will miss the entire 2010 season, and it's likely that 2011 will largely be spent learning how to pitch. According to Tom Gordon, who had the surgery in 1999, "It takes a good two years to really have a good feel again." Still, Parker is young enough - he doesn't turn 21 until next month - that time is on his side. There'll be more on this next week, as I'm writing one of my medical pieces, detailing what the procedure entails, the rehab and Parker's future chances.

He wasn't the only Arizona prospect to suffer an injury setback this week. While Roque Mercedes may have one of the coolest names in the Diamondbacks organization (just ahead of Tyson van Winkle and Vincent Bongiovanni), the pitcher won't be taking the mound for a bit. Nick Piecoro reports our prospect was hit in the face by a line-drive, down in the Dominican Republic his injuries resulting in surgery which will keep him out for about six weeks. To add insult to injury, it was one of his team-mates that was responsible, as Mercedes was throwing batting-practice at the time. I bet that Roque-d him...

As the above paragraph suggests, Winter League ball is under way, with the Dominican and Mexican leagues now joining the Arizona Fall League. I've got a useful link for you, which allows you to see all the D-backs' winter ball statistics in one convenient location. The one line which jumps out is Conor Jackson, who has apparently turned into the Incredible Hulk following his encounter with Valley Fever, and is hitting .533/.682/.933. At this rate, major-leaguers will be queuing up to inhale some of our good ol' Arizonan fungal spores - right up until Bud gets around to banning them as an illegal PED. Which, based on how long he took with steroids, will probably be around the year 2027...

It certainly increased the chance of him being offered a contract by the Diamondbacks. I believe the rules are, that for arbitration-eligible players such as Jackson, we can't offer less than 80% of his previous salary, which for Conor would be $2.4m. If he was still unable to do anything more than become acquainted with Judge Judy and her daytime TV companions, that might not be worth the risk But going 8-for-15 with seven walks? Yeah, I think we'll see a contract with his name on it being drawn up by the front-office. [As an aside, Mrs. SnakePit wonders how Conor is coping there - after all, he's not the most Hispanic of players. She wonders if the team sent an interpreter with him]

Also enjoying his time in the Dominican is Tony Abreu, who is 9-for-22 with an OPS of 1.026. Daniel Cabrera had a solid first outing, throwing four innings and allowing only one run - perhaps more importantly, he also walked only one batter. As we saw during the regular season for Arizona and Washington [42 walks, four hit batters and 11 wild pitches in 51 innings of work], control is by far Cabrera's biggest issue. Jose Marte and Jordan Norberto have barely got started, but have combined for two scoreless innings out of the bullpen for Estrellas de Oriente

Not so much success for AZ pitchers in the hitter-friendly Arizona Fall League. Our four hurlers - Bryan Augenstein, Tom Laine, Scott Maine and Cesar Valdez - have combined for 11.2 innings of work and thirteen earned runs, on seventeen hits and ten walks. Maine and Valdez in partiocular seem to have been infected with Cabrera-itis, having handed out a total of eight free passes in 3.2 frames. At the plate, Brandon Allen has struggled, hitting .211 (8-for-38), though has ten walks, resulting in a respectable .375 OBP. Cole Gillespie is impressing, going 8-for-20 with five walks and only one K. Pedro Ciriaco is also doing well: 9-for-21 with an OPS over a thousand.

Finally in this area - though I'm not quite sure if this counts as "winter ball," since it's actually their summer - the Australian season is about to get under way, naturally featuring our own Trent Oeltjen. Here's a piece on baseball down under, and it looks like this could become another off-season destination for players. "The MLB and the Australian Baseball Federation have joined in a unique partnership to unveil a competition that will seek to attract US stars keen to tune up ahead of their home season. The MLB, buoyed by the success of its joint venture Australian academy on the Gold Coast, which has seen 126 players graduate to pro leagues around the world since 2000, will bankroll 75 per cent of the competition."

A potential financial cloud on the horizon for the team. The Phoenix Business Journal says " The next shoe to drop in the legal fight over special tax breaks and subsidies for developers could be over the 100 percent tax exemptions ponied up for high-profile projects. That action could come after the Arizona Supreme Court decides whether a $97 million tax break for the CityNorth mixed-use development in northeast Phoenix is constitutional under state law... A lawsuit [is] expected to be filed over government property lease excise taxes, or GPLETs. These funding mechanisms allow government entities that own land to lease it back to private developers and businesses, which then pay lower-than-normal property taxes." Currently, the Diamondbacks pay no property taxes because they lease Chase from the Maricopa County Stadium District. Insert rant about taxpayer-funded pro sports facilities here.

Billy Buckner was the winner of the 2009 Diamondbacks' award for Minor-League Pitcher of the Year. That may seem a bit of a surprise, given his lackluster performances early in the season with the big club, but when pitching for Reno, he went 9-3 with a 3.32 ERA. Looking at the other numbers, a couple of other candidates include Berling Cruz, who had a 2.23 ERA in fourteen games (thirteen starts) for the Diamondbacks in the Dominican Summer League, and Michael Belfiore's 2.11 ERA over 58 innings with Missoula. But I'm sure Zephon and IHSB will talk more about these guys in their end-of-season reviews.

Nick Piecoro has come up with his to-do list in the off-season for the Diamondbacks. Not too much to argue with there: little doubt we need a starting pitcher, a first-baseman and a couple of arms in the bullpen. However, I would question the amounts allocated by Nick, of the $28m we have to spend, especially given the names he mentions. I don't think $7m will be anywhere near to get someone like Jason Marquis, who earned close to ten million this season, and won 15 games with the Rockies. I doubt a 30% pay-cut is anywhere imminent in his future. The other suggestion, Brad Penny, who made only six starts, is more likely for the cash: $7m will only get you someone whose 2009 was marred either by injury or their performance.

I'd be surprised if we end up spending more, as Nick thinks, on the bullpen - especially as we don;t need a closer, or even probably a set-up man. Eight million dollars therefore seems a bit high. I think in Chad Qualls, Juan Gutierrez, Esmerling Vasquez and Clay Zavada, we have the makings of a fairly-solid bullpen, and you can add Blaine Boyer, who was very impressive in his time with us, or possibly even Daniel Schlereth to the mix. I think we just need a couple of reliable middle-inning guys, nothing spectacular or too expensive. Overpaying for relievers is not something I'd say the team needs to do - we have more significant needs.

Diamondbacks 0, Cubs 5: From Heroes to Zeroes

Jim McLennan — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:24:29 -0000

More photos » by Nam Y. Huh - AP

Daniel Cabrera follows in the wake of most Diamondbacks fans this year, and covers his face in the middle of a game.

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Record: 69-92. Pace: 69-93. Change on last season: -12

Ah, these were the Diamondbacks we have endured for the last six weeks or so. Not the impostors who showed up yesterday, rapping hits all over the ballpark and confusing us with their tricky "run scoring." A rookie pitcher threw seven shutout innings against Arizona, and combined with a pair of Cubs relievers on a three-hitter. Or, as we Diamondbacks fans have come to learn in 2009, "business as usual."

My final recap of the season after the jump, since soco's doing tomorrow. I should just phone it in - maybe copy and paste the AP recap - since it's clear that's what most of the players have been doing for the past six weeks. If I can be bothered, details to follow.

CHICAGO -- Randy Wells allowed three hits in seven strong innings and struck out a career-high 10, helping the Chicago Cubs beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 on Saturday. Wells (12-10) gave up a leadoff double to Stephen Drew and then retired 14 straight before Eric Byrnes hit a two-out single in the fifth. Wells' 12 wins are the most by a Cubs rookie since Kerry Wood had 13 victor... Ah, who am I trying to kid? It's the blandness of those kind of reports which drove me to start up my first blog, way back in the days when the Internet consisted of two tin-cans with a piece of string connecting them. I needed to express my passion, my enthusiasm, my dedication to the team, and Mrs. SnakePit was fed up hearing about it.

However, from an Arizona perspective, this season has seemed like nothing more than a machine for killing said passion. At least in 2004, there was a self-schadenfreude to be had, because the team was so bad. It was the Plan 9 From Outer Space of baseball seasons, where you could only watch with bemusement as the straight-faced attempt to produce something good imploded into historical levels of awfulness. This season, has been not just bad, it's been forgettably bad: Land of the Lost seems like an appropriate comparison, in more ways than one. Admittedly, no-one expected that to be good, and that's a good part of the pain this year has caused.

If you want a better cinematic metaphor, I'd go with the movie version of Aeon Flux: I had high expectations for that, having loved the animated series and Peter Chung's work in The Animatrix. Then I went to the cinema. I tried to like it; I desperately wanted to, but the longer it went on, the lower I slumped in my seat, as my hopes were brutally crushed. By the end, I fervently wished they just hadn't bothered. That's what this season feels like, and stories like this one don't help. "Over nearly five months, the judgments Hinch made from afar have met a cruel reality... That no matter how good his players are individually, they stink together." Way to ruin my winter, Jeff Passan.

Which brings me - reluctantly, with all the eagerness of a middle-aged man approaching his first prostrate exam - to today's game. Another Saturday contest not screened on the "home of the D-backs", Fox Sports Arizona: they abandoned the Diamondbacks for the pastures of, yuk, college football quite some time ago. It was, however, on WGN, a refreshing change from their usual diet of syndicated television series and films "edited to fit in the time allotted". Though today's offering would have been a good deal less painful, reduced to thirty minutes, including adverts, and with a Cubtastic laugh-track added.

That said, Daniel Cabrera didn't pitch too badly, basically being undone by one bad inning - really, three runs in five frames is not a disaster from a back-of-the-rotation starter. Cabrera was much as advertised. While there's no questioning his stuff, with a fastball which touched 97 mph apparently, he walked three batters and hit another, exhibiting the same control problems that plagued him when starting with the Nationals. NASCARbernet reckoned a relatively simple mechanical adjustment could fix it - though if that is so, one wonders why it hasn't been done before.

With the help of a couple of double-plays, Cabrera faced one batter over the minimum through the front three innings, matching the Cubs zero-for-zero. Not so much in the fourth; with one out, the home batters suddenly seemed to figure him out, and the next four batters all reached, three of them plundering extra-bases. To be fair, Cabrera was not helped by the pointless sprawling of Chris Young, turning a single into a triple. Similarly, in the fifth, Bryan Augenstein failed to deal with a nubber back the mound, and another run scored - a single off the glove of Stephen Drew followed, completing the scoring for Chicago.

It was four runs more than they needed, as our team made another rookie look like the second coming of Cy Young. Wells had never struck out more than seven in a game - he had fanned six Diamondbacks after just three innings, and Mark Reynolds ended the day with the golden sombrero, having gone 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. So what? Well, strikeouts may be not so relevant when you're hitting .275 and have an OPS of .944 - as Reynolds did on September 12. But over the nineteen games since then, he is hitting .153 (11-for-72) with thirty strikeouts, a mere five walks and an OPS of .521. That is a problem.

Not that anyone else on the offense seemed to do much better. Doubles from Drew and Gerardo Parra, plus a single from Eric Byrnes and a walk to Augie Ojeda, were the only base-runners the team managed all-day, striking out a total of twelve times, ten of them in seven innings from Wells. Arizona was hitless in five opportunities with runners in scoring position, and Wells' Game Score of 80 tied for fifth-highest against Arizona this year - Timmeh is the only other young (aged 27 or below) pitcher to have reached that mark against us in 2009. I don't think Wells is that good. You wouldn't have known it today though.

[Click to enlarge, at fangraphs.com]
Master of his (microscopic) domain: Stephen Drew, +2.8%
God-emperor of suck: Daniel Cabrera, -9.2%

There was just so much suck to go around that no one Diamondbacks merited particular mention. Outside of Drew, the only positive contributions came from the mop-up men who posted zeros in the seventh and eighth: Leo Rosales (+0.4%) and Yusmeiro Petit (+0.1%). Everyone else was in negative territory. In the GDT, hotclaws and NASCARbernet tied for the lead on 36; a little sprightlier than yesterday overall, but not by much. Also in attendance for the penultimate time: eel, edbigghead, snakecharmer, pygalgia, emilylovesthedbacks, morineko, Zephon, 4 Corners Fan, Azreous, kishi, katers and Wailord.

It is with some relief that I come to the last recap paragraphs of 2009. I won't be idle - dear me, no, I've got about nine articles lined-up in one form or another, all ready to rock and roll when I have end-of-year numbers to plug in. There'll be no shortage of stuff to talk about, that's for sure, as we work out what needs to be done during the off-season to prepare the team for, hopefully, a better stab at things in 2010. It's been a massively disappointing season, that's for sure. But I know that, long before pitchers and catchers report, my enthusiasm will be fully-recharged, and I'll be desperate for D-backs baseball to begin again.

Thanks in particular go to 'Skins and 'charmer, for their tireless work over the season, and authors soco, kishi, Azreous, IHateSouthBend and Sprankton, for recaps, moderation and their ceaseless good humor in the face of some painfully sucky baseball. But I want to express my appreciation to everyone who had read and/or contributed to the site this year - you have helped make the place into what it is [whatever that may be!]. Here's to better in 2010: look forward to you joining me on that journey.

All's Wells That Ends Wells: Cubs' Randy Wells Outstanding In Final 2009 Start

Al — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:53:53 -0000

More photos » by Nam Y. Huh - AP

Randy Wells finishes off an outstanding rookie season.

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Now here's something that can give us hope for 2010.

Randy Wells gave up a leadoff double to Stephen Drew and then shut the Diamondbacks down. He retired the next 14 in a row and allowed only two other hits, striking out ten, and the Cubs shut out the Diamondbacks 5-0. For the Cubs it was their eighth team shutout of the year (and third in their last eight games), and their first win over Arizona since April.

Wells set a season (and career) high with the 10 K's, and the seven innings pitched qualify him for the ERA leaders list -- at 3.05, he will rank 10th in the league (unless Josh Johnson of the Marlins, who will go in the season's final game tomorrow vs. the Phillies with a 3.08 ERA, passes him). He also walked only one this afternoon, completing 2009 with 46 walks in his 165.1 innings pitched -- that ranks 12th in the NL in fewest walks for anyone who has 162 or more innings this season. Randy also registered his 12th win of the season; in all of Cubs history only seven pitchers won more games in their rookie season. The 3.05 ERA also ranks sixth among all Cubs rookie pitchers who qualified for the league ERA title. (Note: Wells doesn't appear on those lists because before today's game he didn't have enough innings to qualify for the ERA title. Now he does.)

Randy is never going to overpower anyone, although today he had the Diamondbacks flailing away at his pitches, which he mixed up well. In his 27 starts he went fewer than five innings only three times, and today was his ninth outing of seven innings or more. Earlier this year I compared him to former Cub righthander Kevin Tapani. He resembles Tapani in several ways -- stature, pitching motion, the age at which he first established himself in the major leagues. And Tapani was a good #3 or #4 starter for 13 years, and was a key contributor to three playoff teams.

If the Cubs get that out of Randy Wells before he leaves the game, we will all be very happy.

While Wells and Esmailin Caridad (a 1-2-3 eighth) and Carlos Marmol (a 1-2-3 ninth) were keeping the Diamondbacks off the bases, the Cubs were drawing walks and hitting the hapless Daniel Cabrera all over the yard. The biggest blows were a two-run triple from Reed Johnson -- this, a guy who suffered a serious foot injury two months ago -- and two hits and two RBI from Geovany Soto. With his two hits and two walks Geo got his OPS above .700 (to .710). It's a big dropoff from his .868 Rookie of the Year OPS from last year, but at least he appears to be improving in September after an awful August. Geo needs to dedicate himself to losing weight and getting in shape and reporting to Mesa in February ready to recover his production level of 2008.

I was glad that Lou gave Tyler Colvin a start in front of the home crowd; he had an RBI single, and while he's probably not in the mix for a job at Wrigley in 2010, he should be ready to produce in Triple-A next year and be ready to challenge for the major league roster in 2011.

It was also nice to see Marmol throw an efficient inning, looking like the Marmol of old, even though it wasn't a save situation. This should also give him good confidence going into next year. The three pitchers, throwing strikes (87 out of 130 total Cub pitches), allowed the game to end in two hours and eleven minutes. That was the fastest nine-inning game at Wrigley Field since Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Dempster (then the closer) dispatched the Astros in 2:05 on June 11, 2007. Just in time, too -- about five minutes after the last out, a light rain began to fall.

Speaking of rain, here's a final word I heard today about Thursday's rainout and why MLB wanted so badly to have all games played this season. Up to Thursday, no MLB games had been cancelled this year and it seemed possible that every team would play the full 162 games. Instead, with the Cubs having one fewer game than everyone except the Pirates, it's possible that the Cubs could rank ahead of the Rays and/or Mariners, whose records as of today are similar to the Cubs. MLB simply wanted to avoid that "half-game scenario", but Thursday's weather prevented that. That's the reason they waited so long.

And tomorrow, we wrap things up on the Cubs for 2009, we hope, with a win to at least send us off with a good last memory.

More Hints Of 2010: Cubs vs. Diamondbacks Preview, Saturday 10/3, 12:05 CT

Al — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:00:32 -0000

More photos » by Paul Beaty - AP

It was that kind of day yesterday for Sam Fuld.

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Dave van Dyck writes in the Tribune that Aaron Miles is "confident" he can bounce back next year:

The only trouble is that Miles has been buried on the bench by manager Lou Piniella and booed by Wrigley Field fans when he has appeared.

"The fans can be won back pretty quickly," he said. "I've had a tough year. I definitely feel (management) gave me a good chance, but the injuries have gotten in the way. I've had a tough year personally off the field too (with a divorce)."

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. Injuries? Then stay on the DL until they're fixed. Off the field problems? Leave 'em there. I don't want to hear excuses. It's not Miles' fault that Jim Hendry gave him a ridiculous contract when no one else was bidding for his services. It's on Hendry to fix this problem, and I think the most likely solution is to fold him into whatever deal he makes for Milton Bradley (as I suggested yesterday, perhaps Miles and Bradley could be sent to the Giants for Aaron Rowand).

One player who also wants to come back is Bobby Scales, writes Gordon Wittenmyer:

Scales made an impact more as a pinch hitter, going 7-for-13 with two home runs and five RBI in that role. In 50 games, he is hitting .244 with three homers and 15 RBI, playing mostly in the outfield since his last call-up. "There's some satisfaction in what I've done, but I'm always harder on myself than anyone," he said. "The goal is to stay here and help this team. I want to get better because if you're not getting better, you're getting worse, and in this game, if you're getting worse, you're gone."

Scales will turn 32 tomorrow. He's been a nice feel-good story, but I think the Cubs need to do better if they are going to be a serious contender in 2010.

Meanwhile, according to Bruce Miles, "most" of the coaching staff should return next year, including Larry Rothschild. Larry's a punching bag at times when the pitching staff doesn't do well. This year, the pitching was in general pretty good, particularly the starters. My opinion: I don't think Larry has much impact. When the staff does poorly, I don't believe it's his fault; but when they do well, it's not because of him, either. One thing I do believe: Ryne Sandberg should be added to the major league coaching staff next year.

Today's Starting Pitchers


Randy Wells Cubs	vs.	Daniel Cabrera Diamondbacks

11-10	W-L	0-5
3.18	ERA	6.07
94	SO	22
45	BB	39
14	HR	4
vs. Ari	--	vs. Cubs

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2009 - Randy Wells	11-10	26	26	0	0	0	0	158.1	162	67	56	14	45	94	3.18	1.31

NOTE: Daniel Cabrera's stats below are with the Diamondbacks only. See the pitcher box above for his full-season stats.

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2009 - Daniel Cabrera	0-0	5	0	0	0	0	0	6.0	7	5	5	0	4	6	7.50	1.83

Daniel Cabrera was released by the Nationals earlier this year, signed by Arizona to a minor league deal, and recalled after September 1. He was once a top prospect of the Orioles and you'll notice when you see him today that he's a big dude (listed at 6-7, 230). He has never faced the Cubs; the only Cub who could play today who has seen him for more than a couple of AB is Reed Johnson (3-for-16). No one seems to have taken a photo of Cabrera as a Diamondback, so you get the above scowling image of him in a Nationals cap.

Randy Wells needs to throw 3.2 innings today to get on the "qualified" list for the ERA leaders; of course, we'd like to see him throw more than that and do well, since his last start wasn't so good. This will be his first career appearance against the Diamondbacks.

Today's game is on WGN and FSN Arizona. For other games today see the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Diamondbacks site AZ Snakepit.

Overflow comment threads will post today at 1 pm and 2 pm CDT.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Minnesota Twins 2010 Roster & Payroll (Part II)

Jesse — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:48:55 -0000

Thanks for some fantastic coversation on Tuesday! Milt on Tilt, Eric In Madison, Seth Speaks, clutterheart, Fetch9, ajmargarine and everyone else who contributed made for a great discussion, helped clarify some things while running some good back-and-forth over dollars and stats.

We'll start where we left off, which was discussing how internal options would help flesh out the depth chart. All players who aren't either under contract or arbitration-eligible (serfs) will be in italics. Serfs, simply because of how much they're being paid, their options and their experience, are the easiest players to theoretically replace with free agents. Some players will be listed on the depth chart at more than one position, but we should see pretty quickly which positions have talent and depth, and which positions have flexibility but not necessarily reliability.

Catcher: Joe Mauer, Jose Morales
First Base: Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer
Second Base: Nick Punto, Brendan Harris, Alexi Casilla, Matt Tolbert, Steven Tolleson
Third Base: Brian Buscher, Brendan Harris, Matt Tolbert, Nick Punto, Daniel Valencia, Luke Hughes
Shortstop: Nick Punto, Brendan Harris, Matt Tolbert, Trevor Plouffe
Left Field: Denard Span, Delmon Young, Jason Kubel
Center Field: Carlos Gomez, Denard Span
Right Field: Michael Cuddyer, Denard Span, Jason Kubel
Designated Hitter: Jason Kubel

Starting Pitcher: Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey, Nick Blackburn, Brian Duensing, Francisco Liriano, Glen Perkins, Anthony Swarzak, Boof Bonser
Relief Pitcher: Joe Nathan, Matt Guerrier, Jose Mijares, Jon Rauch, Jesse Crain, Pat Neshek, Brian Duensing, Glen Perkins, Boof Bonser, Francisco Liriano

You can make an argument for another player or two being on this list somewhere, but realistically if the Twins went into next season without picking up a single free agent, this would be the essential core of players. From this group you'd need to choose 25 players.

Before we get our estimated payroll figure for those 25, we have to update our estimates for what our nine arbitration-eligible players could be worth next year. 117 comments from Tuesday's post, and using a healthy cross-section of responses as guidelines we'll alter our estimates to the following.

Player	Original Estimate	Updated Estimate
Boof Bonser	$500,000	$900,000
Carlos Gomez	$600,000	$1,000,000
Brendan Harris	$600,000	$1,100,000
Francisco Liriano	$550,000	$1,500,000
Pat Neshek	$500,000	$700,000
Glen Perkins	$550,000	$900,000
Delmon Young	$1,750,000	$1,750,000
Jesse Crain	$2,300,000	$2,300,000
Matt Guerrier	$2,100,000	$2,600,000
Totals	$9,450,000	$12,750,000

We've added $3.3 million dollars in arbitration raises. Add this new total to the committed $62,267,000 and your contractual and arbitration players are making an estimated $75,017,000. Add another eight players at the major league minimum plus a little change, and right now I have to believe that without adding a single free agent the Twins will go to Opening Day with a minimum of $78.5 million dollars. We'll call it an even $80, just in case I've been too conservative in any estimates.

That would constitute a $15 million dollar bump from Opening Day 2009, and it's far and away a franchise record. But what will the front office's limit be for spending this off-season? Will they be allowed to add another $5 million? $10 million? Some on this site have speculated the organization could go so far as to raise payroll to $100,000, even before the team has played a game in its new stadium. I tend to this that's pretty high. I also think this team will be hesitant to reach to $90 million, if only because it's so far removed from any ceiling this club has ever seen.

For now, today, until we hear something different we'll just throw out the number of $87,000,000. Some will think that's too high and a lot will think it's too low, but it's a fair number.

One look at the above depth chart and it's pretty easy to point a finger, run it across a few names and say Okay, So This Is Where We Should Start. Those places, in no particular order, should be starting pitching, shortstop, third base and second base. Check here for a current list of potential free agents, but here's a list of players who could potentially cost $7 million or less per season.

Starting Pitchers: Erik Bedard, Daniel Cabrera, Doug Davis, Josh Fogg, Jason Marquis, Brett Myers, Vincente Padilla, Carl Pavano, Brad Penny, Mark Prior, Jarrod Washburn, Randy Wolf

I purposely left a few names off this list, but this is still fairly exhaustive. Which one of these guys, if any, would constitute enough value for the Twins to shell out millions of dollars with the hope that their additional wins would be worth the value over in-house, cheaper, more familiar options? If you only have $7 million to spend, are you willing to blow it all on one veteran starter? Or maybe the gambling type, and would bring in Prior on a one-year, incentive laden deal? Hell, he'll only be 28.

Third Base: Adrian Beltre, Joe Crede, Bobby Crosby, Mark DeRosa, Nomar Garciaparra, Troy Glaus, Miguel Tejada, Juan Uribe

See anyone you like here? Crede likes it in Minneapolis, would he take another incentive-laden deal based on plate appearances or games played? Or does your gamber's mentality take you to Glaus?

Second Base: Ronnie Belliard, Jamey Carroll, Mark DeRosa, Jerry Hairston Jr, Adam Kennedy, Placido Polanco

Carroll is having a good season for a bad ballclub. Belliard is awful. Do you like DeRosa's versatility enough to pay your entire $7 million stipend? Because he'll come at a cost. Polanco's got a big head, so that's fun.

Shortstop: Orlando Cabrera, Alex Cora, Bobby Crosby, Adam Everett, Khalil Greene, Marco Scutaro, Miguel Tejada, Omar Vizquel

The reality is that no matter where you look in these four positional categories, a vast majority of what you see are either retreads trying to make a comeback, older guys hanging on, younger(ish) players who really aren't very good or other warts-ridden profiles. Keep in mind that this is a list of guys who could make $7 million or less per season, but even those who could make more than that aren't all that great. The few diamonds in the rough will be snatched up, quickly, and will likely be overpaid due to simple economics. So long, Jamey Carroll.

It's not a good free agent class, but in some ways this organization doesn't have a choice going into next season. Not signing a free agent will seem, to the masses (ignorant or not), like just another "stingy" move by a "stingy" front office, although there's been nothing stingy about this organization for years. It's a new stadium being filled with a handful of star players, and the public will expect the Twins to make a splash. Right or wrong.

How would you handle it? It's a complicated decision, and for a team that has more than its share of needs there won't be endless millions to throw around. Unless, of course, you want to make trades or cuts...but that's another story for another day.

I'll leave you to ponder for the time being, on the final off-day for the Twins as we head into the season's final trio of series. Let's enjoy some fall baseball tonight, cheer on the Indians, and I'll see you tomorrow.

Diamondbacks 2, Brewers 9: Los Dbacks or Lost Dbacks?

Jim McLennan — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 03:48:43 -0000

More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

Readers with Photoshop skills should be able to do something with this picture of Kevin Mulvey, about to allow another hit. Probably.

Browse more photos »

Record: 62-81. Pace: 70-92. Change on last season: -9.

The ongoing series of open tryouts for the fourth and fifth spot in the Diamondbacks' rotation continued today, as we saw prospective candidates Kevin Mulvey, Bryan Augestein and Daniel Cabrera. However, going by the overall results tonight, one wonders whether their best bet for 2010 might be a new reality show on Fox Sports Arizona, entitled America's Got Pitching Talent. Eric Byrnes could host it, from shopping malls all across the United States: a man, a radar-gun and a contract.

Hey, it worked in India. More PitchingFAIL can be found after the jump. I blame Wailord:

Anyone
excited to see how Mulvey will do in his debut today? I’m feeling a perfect game with 22K’s.
by Wailord on Sep 12, 2009 12:05 PM MST

Saturday was also Hispanic Heritage Night at Chase Field, going by the "Los Dbacks" jerseys - but I think the the team got them from Washington's supplier, and there was simply a letter missing. Because, for the second consecutive night, the Arizona starter got shelled, allowing the Brewers to take a 5-0 lead after three innings. And stop me if you've also heard this one before, but when the starter finally got yanked off the mound, his replacement managed to wriggle out of a bases-loaded, no outs jam without anyone else scoring.

However, the three runs allowed by Bryan Augenstein next inning kinda destroyed any illusion of competency there. Indeed, the only one to come out with any credibility was Daniel Cabrera - yes, he of the infamous "0 IP, 5 ER" debut for the Diamondbacks. This time, he was better, albeit in mop-up work, with three scoreless innings, on two hits and a wild-pitch - reducing his ERA with us from infinity to just 15.00. With the game not televised here in Arizona (frankly, this probably prevented a number of calls to 911, from fans who had jabbed red-hot objects into their eyes), hard to say if he was doing anything different, or the Brewers' hitters were just tired from running the bases.

Similarly, hard to say much about Mulvey's starting debut: according to ol Pete in the comments, "A lot of soft stuff - loved the 2 seamer that broke in on RHers. Could be a bottom of the rotation guy with a bit more control and just a better night." The box-score, however, is not one Mrs. Mulvey will cut out, place in an attractive frame, and hang over the fire-place. Before this weekend, Arizona starters had allowed 11+ hits over four or less innings, three times in franchise history [Omar Daal in 1998, Robert Ellis in 2001 and Livan Hernandez in 2007]. But it's now happened twice in a row; Milwaukee went 11-for-23 off Mulvey, with six earned runs in four IP tonight.

The offense didn't make any real effort to dig the team out of the hole in which Mulvey and Augenstein had placed them. The Diamondbacks came within one out of going another game hitless with runners in scoring position, before Chris Young singled home Luke Carlin in the bottom of the ninth. That was one of two hits for Young, who could quite conceivably be the best player in the National League over the past week, having gone 8-for-21 with five home-runs. It also gets his season average up to .202 - it's been any higher after only six games since April.

Stephen Drew and Miguel Montero also had a pair of hits each, the former finally getting Arizona on the scoreboard in the sixth inning. He got his tenth triple of the year, and is the only player in the majors to reach double-figures there in both of the past two years [Carl Crawford and Curtis Granderson need three more triples to join Drew]. Montero's two hits raised his 2009 average to .306, which is the best on the Diamondbacks - something I think I can safely say no-one saw coming. He's the sole catcher in the NL with 400+ PAs who's hitting above .300. Slim comfort on a day like today, yet you take it where you can.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Chris Young, +2.7%
God-emperor of suck: Kevin Mulvey, -31.1%

That graph looks distressingly similar to last night's, with the flat-line in bold for added emphasis. It's perhaps the closest I've seen to no Diamondback being in positive territory - the only other one save Young was Cabrera, at a monstrous +0.2%. However, oddly - or perhaps not - this did not stop a lively and varied Gameday Thread, where the game was more one of the side features, again, not helped by its unavailability to anyone in Arizona.

Post-game chatter took us over 600, though I am tempted to discount all comments referring to college football ['charmer, can you automate that in some way?]. 'Skins went into three figures, but six other people cracked forty, led by soco's 89. Also taking part: Azreous, ol Pete, ZonaBacks10, hotclaws, paqs, kishi, emilylovesthedbacks, Fiona, snakecharmer, AcucracK, NASCARbernet, piratedan7, katers, Counsellmember, eel, Wailord, GuruB and venomfan.

Finally, a random aside. While looking up a link, I found this paragraph from the New York Times of October 1905: "Ostensibly because the grounds were wet, but in reality because the gate receipts did not look large enough to the contending baseball players, the third contest of the world's championship series between the Giants and the Athletics, which was to have been decided in Philadelphia to-day, was postponed until to-morrow." Wow. And we accuse moden players of being mercenary...

NL West Report: Home of MLB's best pitching

Poseidon's Fist — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:53:20 -0000

More photos » by Gus Ruelas - AP

Clayton Kershaw is one of many pitchers who have emerged this season to make the NL West a force once again.

Browse more photos »

Pitching wins championships.

At least that's what they say. If that's the case, pitching wins games too. It should be no surprise then that the rise of the NL Worst to the NL Best has centered around strong pitching. We'll just take a simple look at Wins Over Replacement, taking a look at the top 8 in MLB. Choosing the top 8 is partially a novelty for the number of playoff teams and partially a good cleavage point for the argument.

Here's the deal: The NL West has 4 of the top 5 pitching staffs in the National League in WAR, as well as 4 of the top 8 in MLB.

Team	Pitching WAR
Red Sox	19.6
Rockies	19.0
Braves	18.6
White Sox	18.6
Giants	18.2
Blue Jays	15.8
Diamondbacks	14.9
Dodgers	14.7

Of the other five divisions, the NL Central has zero, the NL East has one, the AL West has zero, the AL Central has one and the AL East has two. Only Arizona and Toronto are out of contention for the playoffs.

NL West Report

Arizona (55-70, 4th, W1, 19 GB)

Last Week: 1-6. 0-1 @ Braves. 0-3 @ Phillies. 1-2 @ Astros. Yesterday's win in Houston broke a season-long 7 game losing streak.

Pace: 71-91.

Divisional Change: Lost 3.0 games.

This Week: 3 game road series @ Giants, 3 game home series vs. Astros.

News: The biggest question this offseason for Arizona will be whether Brandon Webb's extension will be picked up. Via Steve Gilbert's twitter, Josh Byrnes says:

"If [his recovery is] close, he'll probably get the benefit of the doubt."

Other than Arizona's season-long losing streak, the storyline of the week was whether Jerry Dipoto would be fleeced from their front office to be the Nationals' new GM. Yahoo! Sports and CBSSports.com both reported that DiPoto got the job, but their reports proved premature. Washington turned down the opportunity to hand over their front office reins to the former Rockies closer, instead naming interim GM Mike Rizzo the full-time general manager.

P Jon Garland cleared waivers. He's not a good value, but he might be the most effective starting pitcher available through waiver trade.

Jon Garland

#52 / Pitcher / Arizona Diamondbacks

Height: 6-6

Weight: 210

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Sep 27, 1979

	W-L	ERA	WHIP	K	BB
2009 - Jon Garland	7-11	4.48	1.46	78	51

Jon Heyman at SI.com wrote that Doug Davis remains in Arizona because Milwaukee offered nothing more than salary relief after claiming him on waivers.

Transactions: RHP Daniel Cabrera assigned to AAA Reno. Called up 1B Brandon Allen from AAA. Allen was the prospect Arizona received in the trade for Tony Pena. Optioned 1B Josh Whitesell to AAA.

Injuries: Conor Jackson saw a disease specialist Aug 19. He might miss the rest of the season. Justin Upton will start a rehab stint in Single-A tonight in an attempt to return in a couple weeks.

Arizona Diamondbacks Injuries

Probable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Stephen Drew	other-excused	08/24/2009

15-Day

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Eric Byrnes	hand	06/26/2009
Scott Schoeneweis	other-excused	08/10/2009
Justin Upton	oblique	08/06/2009

60 Day DL / Out for the season

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Conor Jackson	pneumonia	05/12/2009
Brandon Webb	shoulder	04/07/2009

News on the other three divisional teams after the jump.

Los Angeles (74-51, 1st, L1)

Last Week: 4-3. 1-2 vs Cardinals. 3-1 vs Cubs.

Pace: 96-66.

Divisional Change: Lost 1.5 game lead to COL.

This Week: 3 game road series @ Rockies, 3 game road series @ Reds.

News: As we all know by know, the slim division margin doesn't faze LA. If the Rockies can manage a sweep in the series, they will be tied in the loss column with the Dodgers. Losing a series to Colorado at Dodger Stadium would make it impossible for Los Angeles to maintain their confident mantra.

Also, as we all know, Joe Torre finally got that starting pitcher addition. The Dodgers signed Vicente Padilla, who will start Thursday against the Rockies. True Blue LA reaction.

Vicente Padilla

#0 / Pitcher / Los Angeles Dodgers

Height: 6-2

Weight: 220

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Sep 27, 1977

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2009 - Vicente Padilla	8-6	18	18	0	0	0	0	108.0	120	61	59	12	42	59	4.92	1.50

CBSSports' Scott Miller notes that Padilla is a "proven starter but also a combustible clubhouse presence."

Drew Silva at MLBTradeRumors poses the question: "What is the future for Orlando Hudson?" One place he suggests is Washington, where there has been a revolving door of second sackers all season. True Blue LA weighs in again.

In another TJ Simers piece for the LA Times, apparently Manny Ramirez shouted in the clubhouse "Hey, I'm going to be here next year!" Ramirez has struggled notably since he returned from his suspension.

Eric Stephen's Week in Review (True Blue LA)

Transactions: Placed Hiroki Kuroda on 15-day DL on Aug 19 retroactive to Aug 16. Called up Vicente Padilla Saturday. Recalled IF Tony Abreu.

Injuries: Jamey Loney is day-to-day with the flu, but may be available to start the series against the Rox tomorrow. Hiroki Kuroda threw 60 pitches from 60 feet with no issues Aug 20 in an attempt to come back in early September from that concussion.

Los Angeles Dodgers Injuries

Questionable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
James Loney	flu	08/24/2009

15-Day

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Will Ohman	shoulder	05/28/2009
Jason Schmidt	shoulder	08/06/2009
Hiroki Kuroda	concussion	08/16/2009

60 Day DL / Out for the season

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Doug Mientkiewicz	shoulder	04/17/2009
Xavier Paul	ankle	05/21/2009
Eric Milton	lower-back	06/28/2009

San Diego (52-74, 5th, L2, 22.5 GB)

Last Week: 2-4. 2-1 vs Cubs, 1-3 vs Cardinals. That's a perfect inversion of how LA fared against the two NL Central foes.

Pace: 67-95.

Divisonal change: Lost 1.0 game.

This Week: 3 game road series @ Braves, 3 game road series @ Marlins. It's time to be a fan of the Padres.

News: San Diego extended David Eckstein through 2010 with a $1million deal.

Backup catcher Henry Blanco wants to return also.

San Diego is certainly showing earmarks of a rebuilding team. Instead of taking the originally reported PTBNL for Chad Gaudin, the Padres took $100k. They also traded AAA reliever Scott Patterson to Oakland for cash. What to do with the cash? Apparently, the Padres have invested $10million in amateur talent this season.

Rebuilding teams also build through the Rule 5 Draft. RJ Anderson at FanGraphs highlights the Padres Rule 5 Success, notably former Rockie farmhand Everth Cabrera.

Everth Cabrera

#1 / Short Stop / San Diego Padres

Height: 5-9

Weight: 170

Bats: B

Throws: R

Born: Nov 17, 1986

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG
2009 - Everth Cabrera	67	232	37	63	12	7	2	23	29	51	18	3	.272	.360	.409

Jayson Stark notes that Adrian Gonzalez and Heath Bell were withdrawn off waivers after several teams tried to claim them.

Top pick Donavan Tate made a very good impression when visited PetCo Park.

San Diego honored long-time announcer Ted Leitner.

Transactions: None.

Injuries: P Sean Gallagher threw a bullpen session Thursday and could return in early September. Kyle Blanks injured his heel Saturday and is day-to-day. Chris Young underwent successful surgery last Monday, and Edgar Gonzalez had a couple of hits in a Class A rehab start Saturday. He is attempting to return from the concussion Jason Hammel gave him.

San Diego Padres Injuries

Questionable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Kyle Blanks	heel	08/24/2009

15-Day

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Brian Giles	knee	06/19/2009
Edgar Gonzalez	concussion	07/19/2009

60 Day DL / Out for the season

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Mark Worrell	elbow	03/27/2009
Cha Seung Baek	forearm	03/30/2009
Shawn Hill	elbow	04/26/2009
Chris Young	shoulder	06/15/2009
Cliff Floyd	shoulder	06/18/2009

San Francisco (67-57, 3rd, L2, 6.5 GB)

Last Week: 4-3. 1-0 @ Mets. 2-1 @ Reds. 1-2 @ Rockies.

Pace: 88-74.

Divisional Change: No change in NL West. Lost 1.5 games in Wild Card for the second straight week.

This Week: Final game of a four game set @ Rockies. 3 game home series vs Diamondbacks. 3 game home series vs. Rockies.

News: The Giants signed 1st-rounder Zach Wheeler for $3.3 Million last Monday

Bengie Molina wants to return to the Giants with a 2-year deal. This is in spite of him threatening to be one of the worst cleanup hitters in the last half century with prized prospect Buster Posey ripping up AAA.

Buster Posey

#28 / Catcher / San Francisco Giants

Height: 6-2

Weight: 195

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Mar 27, 1987

*AAA Stats	AVG	OBP	SLG
2009 - Buster Posey	.294	.373	.500

Despite having a very successful season since being promoted to AAA, Posey won't be called up this season. He will instead be a possibility for next year's Opening Day roster. Molina believes there is enough room for them both on the MLB roster next year if he can be retained to mentor Posey.

Tom Verducci goes into Tim Lincecum's potentially unprecedented contract.

The Giants claimed Gary Shieffield off waivers, but the Mets pulled him back.

Transactions: None.

Injuries: Freddy Sanchez is still listed as day-yo-day after missing six straight starts.

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Freddy Sanchez	shoulder	08/24/2009

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Rich Aurilia	ankle	08/12/2009
Andres Torres	hamstring	07/31/2009

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Randy Johnson	trapezius	07/06/2009
Noah Lowry	ribs	03/27/2009
Kelvin Pichardo	shoulder	06/28/2009
Henry Sosa	shoulder	08/05/2009

San Francisco Giants Injuries

Doubtful

Player Injury Type Injury Date

Freddy Sanchez shoulder 08/24/2009

15-Day

Player Injury Type Injury Date

Rich Aurilia ankle 08/12/2009

Andres Torres hamstring 07/31/2009

60 Day DL / Out for the season

Player Injury Type Injury Date

Randy Johnson trapezius 07/06/2009

Noah Lowry ribs 03/27/2009

Kelvin Pichardo shoulder 06/28/2009

Henry Sosa shoulder 08/05/2009

Poll

Do you buy that the Rockies have the second best pitching staff in MLB?

Yes. You just gave me proof by WAR. They have great traditional numbers as a team, and then there's the park effects.

57 votes

Not really. I think we've been good, but I don't trust WAR if it says we're THAT good.

76 votes

Not at all. WAR and SABR stats are bull. There's no way the Rockies one of the top pitching staffs in MLB.

12 votes

HAHA. Coors Field is a Little League park. It inflates numbers. You can't believe any stats. The pitching staff gets the benefit of Coors Field.

6 votes

I usually don't buy into mystical stats like WAR, but I'm going to tell all my friends we have the 2nd best pitching staff anyway.

27 votes

178 votes | Poll has closed

Diamondbacks 1, Phillies 5: Who'll Stop the Rain?

Jim McLennan — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:32:23 -0000

More photos » by Matt Slocum - AP

Alex Romero dodges a large, Sedona Red raindrop in the shape of a batting helmet. Felines and canines were also part of the precipitation.

Browse more photos »

Record: 54-66. Pace: 73-89. Change on last season: -7.

Stephen Drew homered to lead off the top of the first inning for the Diamondbacks today. Things went downhill from there, as the Phillies came out strong after a 65-minute rain-delay and Jon Garland didn't. Meanwhile, veteran Jamie Moyer made his first appearance in relief since 1996, replacing Pedro Martinez after the break in the action. He closed down the Arizona offense for six shutout innings, allowing only two baserunners on a pair of singles. The recent offensive struggles - in particular against left-handed pitchers - continued, and we dropped our third game in a row.

Details after the jump. Please bring your umbrellas and wellingtons, as there may be jumping into puddles involved.

I was pretty surprised to see Jon Garland go back to the mound for the Diamondbacks when play resumed in the bottom of the third. Sure, he'd only worked two innings, throwing about 34 pitches, but to then have to go and sit in the dugout for more than an hour, before coming out and heading back to the mound. Was AJ Hinch trying to save the bullpen? If so, it didn't work out too well, as in the 3.1 innings of work that came after the game resumed, Garland allowed eight hits and five runs, admittedly not exactly helped by Ryan Roberts, who wasn't so much waving as drowning in right-field.

Not that he was exactly razor-sharp before it, as the Phillies loaded the bases in the bottom of the first on two hits and a walk. However, Garland did at least manage to escape that jam, striking out Howard, getting Worth to foul out and Ibañez to ground out - 81 homers and 239 RBI between them, and they couldn't do anything with a bases-loaded no-out situation. He allowed another hit in the second, but the rain came in the middle of the third, ending hopes of us squeaking out a 1-0 five inning victory.

When we resumed, the Ryan Roberts Light-field Rodeo was largely responsible for the three-run Phillies third. With two outs and a man on first, he made a dive for a ball that was born more of optimism than any realistic hope of a catch - it went to the wall and the run scored. After an intentional walk, the next batter singled to left, Roberts overthrew not just the cutoff man, but everyone, allowing one man to score and giving the other runners an extra ninety feet. It took an outfield assist from Romero to end the inning - I am inclining to the view that, while Roberts may be a passable outfielder in an emergency, he probably shouldn't be there to start a game.

Solo homers in the fifth and sixth completed the scoring off Garland, who trudged off the mound with a final line of 5.1 innings, eleven hits, two walks and five earned runs. Things looked like they were going to get even worse, as Daniel Schlereth uncorked a wild pitch, to move the two inherited runners into scoring position, and ended up walking his first batter on four straight balls. But Howard struck out with the bases loaded for the second time and a groundout allowed Schlereth to avoid further damage. Leo Rosales and Jon Rauch finished things off.

Meanwhile, Moyer was finishing Arizona off, and the Diamondbacks were held to only four hits - two of those coming to our opening pair of batters - the lowest number since July 5. Two hits for Roberts, but the entire team were held without a walk once again; in the last three games, we have a total of two free passes, while the Diamondbacks have struck out 28 times. Ouch. Josh Whitesell was oh-for-3, meaning that since being re-recalled to the team on May 30th, he is batting .225, which doesn't sound like 2010 first-baseman material. In his defense, that does include him going 1-for-12 as a pinch-hitter, which appears not to be his forte.

I can't say what the weather was like when they resumed, as I hadn't got home by that point - but it was, frankly, abysmal in the seventh inning, and one wonders what the umpires were hoping to accomplish by playing on. Poor Mark Reynolds looked like a dog left out in a thunderstorm, wearing an expression which seemed to say, "What did I do wrong? Because whatever it was, I'm very, very sorry..." The rest of the team should probably be looking somewhat similar after a third consecutive lame performance. Hell Week started promisingly, but Arizona now has its work cut out.

[Click to enlarge, at fangraphs.com]
Master of his domain: Ryan Roberts, +6.1%
God-emperor of suck: Jon Garland, -24.1%
Dishonorable mention: Gerardo Parra, -10.9%

Almost four hundred comments, in part due to the delay. IHateSouthBend pipped dima1109 by the smallest possible margin, 49-48, with kishi also in the forties. Other participants were: soco, Wailord, Clefo, DbacksSkins, emilylovesthedbacks, 4 Corners Fan, Sprankton, Jim McLennan, BattleMoses, luckycc, snakecharmer, older fart, Zephon, hotclaws, Fiona, Azreous, Muu, jazzbo13 and pygalgia.

Elsewhere, as noted by 'charmer, Conor Jackson's rehabilitation came to a grinding halt, as he left Visalia, with the same issues which have plagued him all summer. Nick Piecoro floats the possibility that the Diamondbacks may non-tender Jackson - a stunning thought, but one that would certainly help clear up the outfield situation. And in Reno, Daniel Cabrera was chased from his first Triple-A start after just one inning, in which he allowed six runs on four hits and three walks. Doesn't sound like he'll be the answer to our rotational questionmarks, going by that performance.