SB Nation - Jailen Peguero

Diamondbacks 1, Brewers 4 - One-hit Wusses

Jim McLennan — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:15:00 -0000

Never a good sign when your team has more errors than hits, but the day after St. Paddy's seemed to find Arizona with a monstrous hangover, as our hitters proved completely unable to solve Milwaukee starter Yovani Gallardo. He pitched five innings of no-hit ball for the Brewers, with the D-backs hitters managing only three walks. Gallardo faced just one batter over the minimum, thanks to Chris Snyder getting caught stealing second and Chad Tracy hitting into a double-play. Things didn't get any better after he was relieved, with Augie Ojeda [newly returned from the WBC] providing Arizona's sole hit of the afternoon, singling home Chris Roberson from second in the sixth inning. That was the last base-runner the team would manage. Needless to say, not much to report from the box-score - Chris Snyder had two of the team's three walks.

Doug Davis had his first spring outing in more than two weeks, having been held out for a while, because of issues with his triceps. It seemed to go very well, with Davis also stopping the opposition from getting a hit, albeit over only 2.1 innings - he walked one and struck out two. Said Doug afterwards, "I felt really good out there, sometimes too good, overthrowing a little bit," but laid off his full repertoire of pitches since he "wasn’t real confident in snapping off the curveball as of right now." He should get three more starts before the regular season and, assuming there are no more issues, shouldn't have any problems being ready for that.

Mostly a grab-bag of relievers the rest of the way, with the only real name among than Chad Qualls, who ended up taking the loss for the run he allowed in the fourth, on two hits. Leo Rosales gave up another one in a couple of innings, and was followed by Seth Etherton, who allowed two Brewers to cross home-plate in the seventh, before adding a scoreless eighth. Esmerling Vasquez pitched a scoreless ninth, but got to wince on see a final hit tally which read Milwaukee 11, Arizona 1, especially with a starting line-up that was about half-full of everyday starters for the Diamondbacks.

Someone we won't be seeing any more is Jailen Peguero, who has been handed his release by the Diamondbacks, which has to count as a moderate shock. He was something of a fringe contender for the bullpen, and hadn't exactly had a stellar spring, surrendering 11 hits and seven earned runs in five innings of work. Still, he appeared in 25 games between this season and next, so it was a surprise he was entirely cut, rather than sent to Tucson. Seth Etherton, Jon Coutlangus and Esmerling Vasquez were all also culled and re-assigned, though in less dramatic fashion. This leaves the D-backs with a total of 41 players in camp: 17 pitchers; 5 catchers; 9 infielders and 10 outfielders..

Some lengthier audio clips from our colleagues at KTAR: interviews with Bob Melvin, and Kirk Gibson from yesterday, and Snyder today. Melvin talks about how Eric Byrnes is going to be handled, Max Scherzer's rehabilitation, and how impressed everyone has been by Evan Frey. Kirk Gibson's interview is a little less directly Diamondbacks-oriented, discussing music and 'grinding' out games, but Snyder discusses the team's attitude, his contract extension, why pitchers like throwing to certain catchers and whether he is 'feeling sexy in Tucson.' Blame Conor Jackson for the last... Anyway, here are the clips. Enjoy.

Audio courtesy of KTAR 620

Off-day for the Diamondbacks tomorrow, so I'll be posting the long-awaited last in the 'Know Your Enemy' series, covering the Dodgers. This will be done from a specially-hardened bunker in a secret location. Speaking of LA, here's an interesting "and finally..." story: Mandy playing cricket?

Scrubs 7, Cubs 10: Diamondbacks lose it late

Jim McLennan — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:58:54 -0000

Arizona went into the 8th innings with a 4-3 lead in this one but Kyler Newby and Jailen Peguero allowed seven runs in the final two innings, to hand the Cubs victory on a plate. Newby was particularly unimpressive, allowing homers at a rate which would impress Yusmeiro Petit: three of the six batters he faced went yard, accounting for four runs. He only retired two batters and had to be bailed out by Clay Zavada, who retired the final hitter. Peguero fared little better, though did at least keep the ball in the park: however, Chicago rapped out five hits in the ninth, leading to three more runs.

I can't say I mind this kind of defeat too much. It doesn't mean a great deal, since those responsible will likely not be seeing the 25-man roster on Opening Day - and, in Newby's case, probably not for the entire season. What's more important is what happened earlier, with Brandon Webb basically coming one pitch away from tossing four shutout innings. Our ace only hit trouble once, in the third where he allowed a two-out single, followed by a walk - and then, unfortunately, a first-pitch home-run to Micah Hoffpauir, that spoiled an otherwise effective afternoon. Bob Melvin was certainly impressed, saying "I thought he threw the ball as well as he has all spring. I thought he threw inside better, and his breaking stuff looked better." The final tally: four hits, two walks, three runs and four K's in four innings.

Arizona came right back in the bottom half of the inning, however, matching the Cubs by scoring three runs of their own. Snyder broke up Harden's perfect game to that point with a lead-off homer, and we took advantage of some subsequent wildness from the Cubs pitcher, who walked three in the frame, including one with the bases loaded. Justin Upton also had an RBI double to help tie things up. After Webb left the game, we got some effective relief: Chad Qualls, Leo Rosales and Esmerling Vasquez combined for three innings of one-hit ball, striking out four Cubs. And Mark Reynolds gave Arizona the lead in the sixth with a long bomb to left, his first of the spring. However, it didn't last long after Newby took the mound... James Skelton was the only Diamondbacks to have much success at the plate, getting a pair of hits.

Elsewhere, Conor Jackson is not worried about power. "If it comes, it comes. If it doesn't, I think a team is still going to want a guy who hits .300, has a high on-base percentage and still drives in his runs. I can still be productive without hitting home runs." He reckons that his power-outage in the second-half of last season was mostly a mental thing, saying "I think you try to do a little too much when you start getting in a slump and you're not hitting home runs," he said. "That's just not my game... I need to implant that in my head... When I'm trying to hit a line drive in the gap or a line drive up the middle, that's when good things happen."

Good crowd yesterday in Tucson, 11,455 - basically, standing-room only at Tucson Electric Park - for the game against the Cubs. However, if you're able to take in a game during the week, there are now some smoking deals to be held, with plenty of two-for-ones and 50% off those weekday games. These promotions are available for online purchase using the promo code "CACTUS". Unsurprisingly, probably the best deals are to be had for the outlying stadiums at Goodyear and Surprise, so if you want to see the Royals, Rangers or Indians, now's your chance, though best not be too picky over who they're facing. If I didn't have rather too much to do today, we'd probably be taking advantage.

Tomorrow should be a significant day for our injured warriors, possibly seeing the return of both Eric Byrnes and Max Scherzer to the fold. The former appeared in a minor-league game on a backfield yesterday, and went 3-for-5 with a walk and a stolen-base, apparently going basically full-throttle. Byrnes said afterwards, "I thought it went very well... It felt really comfortable. As the game went on I felt even more comfortable. It was really awkward to be out there for the first time in a few months. There were a few things that felt a little foreign." Of course, we've all learned to take Byrnes' pronouncements on his health with a grain of salt over the past year... [And here we go: Byrnes' return to Diamondbacks delayed. Looks like it'll now be Friday before he sees full action]

And that'll do for here: Community Projections for our pitchers to follow later today, along with a report on this afternoon's game against the Rockies at TEP.

Winter Wonderland

Jim McLennan — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:52:03 -0000

The pro baseball season may have finished, even here in Arizona, but it's been going strong in South and Central America, with a large number of Diamondbacks prospects (and some current players), both pitchers and hitters, seeing action. Leagues have been going on in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Hawaii, so with most of the seasons now over or winding-down, let's take a look and see what the results have been like so far.

We'll start in Hawaii where, as noted elsewhere, Hawaiian Winter Ball looks unlikely to continue, having not extended its contract with MLB, meaning this could therefore be its final year. Three Diamondbacks were members of the West Oahu CaneFires this season, with Mark Hallberg perhaps the most impressive. The infielder, who turned 23 last month, had been nothing special at High-A Visalia, batting .283, but enjoyed his time in the 49th state, batting .362 with a .906 OPS. The best raw numbers went to Cyle Hankerd, however, with a line of .318/.392/.545, leading the team in HR and RBI (5 and 33 respectively, in 25 games). That's the same number of homers as he had in 125 games for Double-A Mobile. Finally, our new catcher, James 'Jack' Skelton also took part, and continued his habitual on-base tear, with an impressive .405 OBP.

The Mexican Winter League had two Arizona starting pitchers - though one, Edgar Gonzalez, may or may not make it back to the team in 2009, having been released by the club. He went 4-1 for Hermosillo in seven starts, posting a 4.46 ERA. New Australian left-hander Travis Blackley made ten starts for Mexicali, including a complete game, and went 2-3 with a decent 3.88 ERA in those games [a couple of bad bullpen outings inflated his overall figure to 4.24]. Of particular note was a good K:BB ratio of 3:1 as a starter. No Arizona hitter has appeared in more than six games so far, and the regular season is now in its last week, so we'll move rapidly on.

The Dominican League saw our players appear for Estrellas de Oriente, and was similarly pitcher-heavy. Evan MacLane pulled double duty, appearing both here and Venezuela: between the two, he had twelve starts and a 4.00 ERA. He struggled a bit more in the DWL, being winless in nine outings there, though showed excelled control, allowing eight walks in 41 innings and just nine in 63 overall, compared to 52 strikeouts. Jailen Peguero made 18 apperances out of the 'pen and had a 3.00 ERA, with three saves in five changes. However, he did walk too many people - fourteen in only eighteen innings, along with three wild pitches. On the plus side, opposing hitters batted only .190 off Peguero, but Estrellas still missed the playoffs, winning only 16 of 50 games, so their season is over.

The same issues plagued young southpaw Jordan Norberto, with 14 walks in 17.2 innings of work, but a .212 average against. He only just had his 22nd birthday on December 8th, so is still young enough. He spent both 2007 and 2008 at Class-A South Bend, and having had an ERA above five both times, needs to step things up this year. The other Diamondback to pitch a significant (ten-plus) number of innings in the DWL was Esmerling Vasquez, who made six appearances all told, totaling 13.1 IP, with a 3.38 ERA. He began as a starter, but was shifted to a relief role after walking five batters in his first six innings. That seemed to help, as his K:BB ratio was 6:2 in the remaining 7.1 frames, with only one earned run allowed. He was our minor-league Pitcher of the Year in 2007, but struggled in Tucson last season, where his ERA was 6.82 in 83 innings.

Finally, we move to the Venezuelan Winter League, with a number of fine performances by AZ players. Leading hitter is probably Jesus Merchan, shortstop for the Sidewinders last season. His success is not unexpected, since he batted .339 for Tucson, but his on-base skills were notable. Merchan has given his team a .423 OBP, and decent wheels [4 triples in 79 at-bats], help his OPS reach .980. My first thought was, move to 2B this year in Reno, with the aim to replace Lopez in 2010. However, he'd then be 29, and his defense seems poor [21 errors in 107 games at SS last year]. Miguel Montero had an interesting winter. He started off very poorly, going just .185 (5-for-27) at the beginning of the year, with Bravos de Margarita. However, after a trade took him to Caribes, Miggy has been en fuego, giving his new team a line of .302/.358/.530, with eight homers in just 149 at-bats. Could probably do with some more walks, and he's K'd more than three times as often, worse than in the majors last season.

Gerardo Parra (above) also impressed observers; he is only 21 but batted .329 for Aguilas de Zulia, leading the team with 124 total bases and 15 SB, on his way to a .908 OPS. He had almost as many walks as strikeouts (31:36), giving him an OBP above .400, and is seen by some as the most likely internal prospect to replace Byrnes [if EB stays his contract]. Our well-known 2008 outfielder, Alex Romero, went one better, getting more walks than strikeouts (19:18), to tack onto a .311 average. However, his familiar lack of power - five extra-base hits in 44 games - means his SLG is lower than his OBP, and the overall OPS of .754 is disappointing.

Moving on to the pitchers, we've already covered Evan MacLane, but the one who stands out was Juan Gutierrez. As noted previously, he had a one-hitter among his 13 starts, for a 5-2 record and 2.63 ERA; even that's after a bad outing last time, before which it was 2.30. His K-rate is good - 56 in 65 innings, compared to 20 walks - and he is keeping the ball in the park. Gutierrez has allowed only a pair of home-runs, one in that most recent start, to franchise-mate Javier Brito. That can't be said for Yusmeiro Petit, who continues to be plagued by the long-ball, to the tune of seven in just 39 innings. Hitters overall are enjoying the Petit Unit, to the tune of .316, and he is still winless after eight starts. His last three outings have resulted in a total of 23 hits and 11 earned runs over 13.1 innings of work. Maybe picking up another starter is a wise idea...