SB Nation User Blog: DbacksSkins

I have the best girlfriend ever.

DbacksSkins — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:55:47 -0000

I have the best girlfriend ever.

These were a gift from my girlfriend, a Giants fan. I'll be in Mexico this weekend, but I'll wear...

DbacksSkins — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:44:43 -0000

These were a gift from my girlfriend, a Giants fan.

I'll be in Mexico this weekend, but I'll wear them for good luck anyway.

BaseballAmerica: Dbacks have 4 prospects in the top 20 among Pioneer League rookies

DbacksSkins — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:02:20 -0000

BaseballAmerica: Dbacks have 4 prospects in the top 20 among Pioneer League rookies

Bobby Borchering is ranked the #3 prospect in the PL, and is joined in the top 10 by #7 Chris Owings. Mike Belfiore and David Nick also made the top 20, and Paul Goldschmidt just missed it. (But was mentioned in the article)

Sounds like one helluva rookie infield around 2012/2013ish.

Diamondbacks 7, Padres 4: Win One for the Buckner

DbacksSkins — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:15:58 -0000

More photos » by AARON J. LATHAM - AP

Chad Tracy watches what might be his last home run at Chase Field.

Browse more photos »

The Arizona Diamondbacks Professional Base Ball Club gathered at a small field in the warehouse district of downtown Phoenix today for a friendly with the San Diego Padres Professional Base Ball Club. Several spectators came out to watch the match, as it was the Club's final outing in Arizona until early next year. Throwing on behalf of the Arizona side was a young fellow named William Buckner, and for the San Diego side, an immigrant gentleman by the name of Edward Mujica. Hitting "home runs", an exciting happenstance wherein a batter hits a ball completely out of the field of play, were a down-home North Carolina boy named Chad Tracy as well as a Mexican-American fellow named Adrian Gonzalez. Registering a win for our dear old home side was Buckner, while Mujica notched his 5th loss of the year for San Diego. Details of this jovial event can be found by turning to the athletics page of this news paper.

Record: 68-88. Pace: 71-91. Change on last season: -9

Billy Buckner pitched seven innings of three hit baseball to get the win, but narrowly missed tossing his second quality start at home this season. Buckner was perfect the first time through the order, but the first three batters in the Padres lineup all scored before Buckner recorded an out the second time through, on a walk to Tony Gwynn, a David Eckstein single severely misplayed by Justin Upton, and Adrian Gonzalez's 40th home run of the season, a pool shot. Buckner quickly settled down to get the next nine batters in order, but a leadoff walk to Chase Headley to start the 7th inning scored on a double by Drew Macias to rob Buckner's chances at a QS. However, Buckner struck out Henry Blanco and Everth Cabrera to end the inning and leave with the lead. Billy fell one short of his career high with 7 strikeouts and came within one out of his longest career outing, going 7 innings. He allowed only 3 hits and 2 walks, but 4 of those 5 baserunners came around to score.

Esmerling Vasquez came on to pitch the 8th, and after going 3-0 on Luis Durango, Mark Reynolds came out to the mound to talk to Vasquez. Whatever he said must have worked, because he came back to strike out Durango and followed with a groundout by Gwynn. Eckstein was able to squirt a ground ball through the infield, and after LOOGY Scott Schoeneweis failed to retire Adrian Gonzalez, AJ Hinch brought in Juan Gutierrez for a 4-out save. Non-closer Gutierrez immediately struck out Chase Headley to end the dreaded 8th inning without a run, and pitched around singles by Blanco and Cabrera in the 9th to get his 8th save of the year and grab saves in consecutive games for the first time since the 15th of this month, and only his second 1+ inning save of the season; his only other coming on May 26th against these same Padres in 5 outs.

On the offensive side of the game, Chad Tracy was the star, coming a triple away from the cycle in his probable final Dbacks home game, scoring two and driving in himself on the homer. Batting behind Tracy, Augie Ojeda, who very well might have played in HIS last Dbacks home game, also had three hits with two doubles, driving in three and scoring two. No other Diamondback had more than a single hit, although only Reynolds went ohfer among the starters. Justin Upton reached 3x on a single and two walks. Stephen Drew went 1-5 but made it count, driving in two runs on a double in the bottom of the 6th to give the Dbacks the lead.

Both teams were scoreless until the 4th inning. Tracy and Augie hit back to back doubles and Buckner helped himself out with a single to make the score 3-2 in favor of the visitor, while Chad's solo homer to the pool area in the bottom of the 6th tied the game. The 3rd video review of the homestand confirmed the homer, after a fan apparently reached up above Tony Gwynn's glove. Gwynn argued for interference, but the crew chief disagreed upon video review. Augie singled and Chris Young walked in front of Droo, who gave the home team a lead they wouldn't relinquish. Our Venezuelan dynamic duo of Miguel Montero and Gerardo Parra both singled to allow Augie to drive in the final two runs of the game, capping the scoring at 7-4 in favor of the good guys.

[Click to enlarge at fangraphs.com]
Badass of the Day: Augie Ojeda, +25.4%
Also mavericky: Stephen Drew, +18.4%; Chad Tracy, +15.9%
Boarding the bus to Reno: Mark Reynolds, -11.3%

It was a quick game, just 2 hours and 33 minutes, and finished our season series with San Diego at a satisfying 11-7 in favor of the Snakes. Attendance was just over 30k souls for the last home game of the season, down nine thousand from Mark Reynolds Night but still third highest for a Sunday home game this season and the highest since August 16th against the Dodgers.

A Wolf-like 359 comments in the gameday thread, led by soco, the only poster to break triple digits, followed by me and hotclaws. Posters included Azreous, soco, emilylovesthedbacks, hotclaws, DbacksSkins, Wailord, mrs snakepit, NASCARbernet, kishi, katers, and a cameo appearance by ChrisHansen. Now, all of you should go watch the home team Arizona Cardinals beat AJforAZ's Indianapolis Colts on national TV!

[Update: audio clippage. At the moment, from AJ Hinch talking before the game, reviewing the "disappointing" 2009 season, but saying he believes we can contend next season.]

Audio courtesy of KTAR 620

Diamondbacks 7, Rockies 5: From Dusk Till Dawn

DbacksSkins — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 05:23:57 -0000

More photos » by AARON J. LATHAM - AP

Dbacks color guy Matt Williams' sporadic dip into statistical language tonight can mean only one thing: Hell might be freezing over, and Jason Marquis' 2009 deal with the devil might be finished.

Browse more photos »

Record: 65-83 Pace: 71-91 Change on last season: -8

The Dbacks came one game closer to winning the NL Wild Card tonight, knocking the Rockies off a game and bringing themselves within 19 games of the WC leader with 14 left to play. No, but seriously, the Diamondbacks continued to play the Rockies tough in 2009, bringing the season series between the teams to 7-9, but needing to win the next two games in order to overcome that ugly sweep in Coors two weekends ago and earn a season split.

After getting off to a rough, Kevin Mulvey-driven start, the Diamondbacks rallied for a come-from-behind victory and held on to win against the Colorado Rockies. Brandon Allen had a two-run, game-tying homer, Ryan Roberts had two hits, two walks, and a solo shot of his own, Stephen Drew decided to read Jim's article and had two line-drive singles, Gerardo Parra had a two-RBI double off the glove of Brad Hawpe, and Mulvey and the bullpen combined to allow only 1 run after the 3rd inning. Details, as always, after the jump.

Kevin Mulvey started out his second major league start by giving up a double to Carlos Gonzalez, a former Dbacks farmhand who hit a homer off him in his Dbacks debut last week. After getting Snakekiller Seth Smith out on a fly ball and Todd Helton on a grounder, it appeared as though he might escape without damage. However, consecutive walks to the Tool and Rockies All Star Brad Hawpe loaded the bases for Yorvit Torrealba, who is currently hitting over 1.00 with RISP. (Seriously. He's like 18-16 or something) Torrealba lined a single to CY in center. BAM! Rox 2, Dbacks 0. Mulvey struck out Ian Stewart to end the threat and advance to the bottom.

However, the Dbacks were facing mighty Jason ZOMGZ USED TO BE LEEDING THE NL IN WINZ!!! Marquis, (Not to be confused with ZOMGZSanchez) who promptly gave a run back. Chris Young singled to lead off the bottom, Stephen Drew followed with a single of his own, but Justin Upton, the best hitter on the team, tried to lay down a bunt, presumably for a hit. He was tagged out, and one has to wonder why, exactly, he would do such a thing. In retrospect, it ended up paying off as a sac bunt, as Miguel Montero drove the ball deep to RF to bring in CY on an arc that nearly left the park. Mark Reynolds, who finished 0-3 but with a walk, popped out to end the inning.

The teams traded 0's in the second, which was probably slightly less impressive for Mulvey, who was facing the Rockies' 8, 9, and leadoff hitters. After issuing a 2 out walk to his nemesis, Carlos Gonzalez, a terrible jump and a strong throw by Miguel Montero caught CarGon trying to steal 2nd for the 3rd out. In the bottom of the inning, Gerardo Parra reciprocated by erasing his own leadoff walk on a CS, and after a Ryan Roberts walk, Brandon Allen and Mulvey struck out to end it. In the third, Mulvey continued his "2 on, 2 off, 2 on, 2 off" pattern by allowing a single to Smith and a homer to short left by Tulowitzki, and Marquis struck out the Dbacks' 1-2-3 hitters in the bottom of the inning. Sign of things to come?

Um, no. Mulvey followed with his own 3-up, 3-down inning, and Miggy led off the bottom of the 4th with a deep double. Reynolds bounced into a very strange play where Miggy took off for 3rd, thought better of it, then slid back into 2nd. Meanwhile, Toolo fielded the ball but, seeing Miggy running right in front of him, ran towards him to get the out, before realizing that he needed to toss it to Clint Barmes instead, who completely miffed the tag. First and second, no outs.

The no out situation was quickly rectified by Gerardo Parra, who did one of the two things he does best: grounded into a double play, erasing Mark at 2nd but sending Miggy to 3rd. Roberts, however, singled with a liner of his own to score Montero, and Brandon Allen flexed his muscles, sending a 3-2 pitch low in the zone out onto the pool deck in right center and tying the game, for his 4th home run of his brief rookie season. Trent Oeltjen pinch hit for Mulvey but struck out. Following the game, AJ Hinch commented that if the Dbacks had still been behind his next time up, Mulvey would have hit for himself, but with a tie game and a chance to win it, he opted to bring in the bullpen.

At the time, the decision to bring in Daniel Schlereth was met by a collective groan in the Snakepit Gameday Thread, as Dbacks fans everywhere penned their suicide notes. Son of Stink responded by pitching two perfect 1-2-3 innings in a row, while the Dbacks wasted offensive opportunities in the 5th and 6th. A 2 out Upton double went for naught in the 5th, as did two 1-out walks and one 2-out walk in the 6th, when the New And Improved Chris Young reverted to Old And Fail Chris Young, popping out to Barmes with the bases juiced.

Leo Rosales pitched a perfect 7th for the *SPOILER ALERT* win, and the Dbacks finally broke through against the Rockies' bullpen in the bottom. Manager Jim Tracy brought in LOOGY Randy Flores, who promptly gave up another line-drive single to Droo into LF. Tracy pulled his lefty for a righty, who got two quick K's of Upton and Montero before Reynolds showed remarkable patience in drawing a full-count walk. Parra came to bat again, and did that OTHER thing he does really well, by getting a double with RISP -- well, maybe we should call this a "Coors Field double". The deep fly ball to RF bounced off the tip of Hawpe's glove, bounced off the wall, and rolled around to give Droo and Reynolds time to score. Parra was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple for the 3rd out, but the Dbacks had their first lead over Colorado since the 6th inning of the first game in the Coors sweep.

Hinch brought in Scott Schoeneweis for a perfect 8th, and Power Hitter Ryan Roberts led off the bottom with his 7th home run of the season, in a sign that it might just be Arizona's night.

Juan Gutierrez, the Dbacks' de facto closer, pitched himself out of a sticky situation in the 9th for his 6th save. Gutierrez walked Hawpe to lead off and gave up consecutive singles to Torrealba and Stewart to make it 7-5, allowing only his 2nd run of the last 13 innings. With no outs and runners on 1st and 2nd, Gutierrez responded by striking out pinch hitters Jason Giambi and Garret Atkins and getting CarGon to pop out harmlessly to Miggy to end it.

It was a game that got pretty dark, pretty quickly, but the Arizona side fought their way back for another comeback win, and have now taken 3 of 4 after going 1-9 in their previous 10. After allowing 5 earned runs in 3 of his last 4 starts against the powerful Giants, Mets, and Padres offenses, Jason ZOMGWINZ Marquis rebounded against the Dbacks to give up merely 4 earned over 6. Mulvey, on the other hand, preserved his perfect Mark Grace-esque ERA of 9.00, a trend we'll be glad to see end eventually... hopefully.

[Click to enlarge, at fangraphs.com]
Badass of the Day: Ryan Roberts, +19.0%
Also mavericky: Parra, +16.9%; Schlereth, +14.5%; Allen, +13.4%
Boarding the bus to Reno: Kevin Mulvey, -21.7%
Should have stayed in bed: Chris Young, -12.3%

Pretty typical come-from-behind WP graph, with the Dbacks coming back from about an 80% chance to lose in the 4th inning. Also, the Diamondbacks got into Taco Territory for the first time in September, with a run to spare, no less. Oh joy!

In the gameday thread, which ended up with nearly 660 comments, the top poster was.... well, me, with soco coming in second with 156. NASCARbernet (63) and Jim (62) were the next two, and the only other posters with more than 47. Commenters included kishi, 4 Corners Fan, DbacksSkins, katers, friendly visiting fan coolopotamous, soco, AcucracK, snakecharmer, hotclaws, Jim McLennan, emilylovesthedbacks, eel, luckycc, asteroid, NASCARbernet, mrssoco, jazzbo13, piratedan7, Scrbl, and Wailord. Our GDT was narrowly pipped by Purple Row's, who outcommented us 664-657. (Note that both GDT's were narrowly pipped by Purple Row's Overflow Thread, with an additional 795 comments. Oh well, you win some, you lose some?)

Normal 5:10PM saturday start tomorrow, with young Mad Max Scherzer facing off against young Jason "Kinda Looks Like A Monkey" Hammel. Will the Dbacks win to take the series and keep the hopes alive of a season split? Or will the Rockies drive another stake into the hearts of the Giants? Will more random Rockies-eating bears show up in the Gameday Thread? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Ladies and Gentlemen of the 'Pit, once again, your attention please?

DbacksSkins — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:07:01 -0000

Ladies and Gentlemen of the 'Pit, once again, your attention please?

Once again, I require your attention in order that I might celebrate a completely superfluous and embarrassing accomplishment.

Schoeneweis leaves the Dbacks

DbacksSkins — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:56:34 -0000

Hello again, Halos fans. Haven't seen you folks since the Reynolds/Figgy campaign. I just thought you might want to know that former Angel Scott Schoeneweis is taking an indefinite leave of absence from the team. Since the Dbacks aren't in contention, they've kept him on the roster despite lousy performance of late after his wife passed away, but now he's off on his own accord.

Thought you'd wanna know, since I know plenty of you are still fond of Scott.

Mark Reynolds is the NL Player of the Week

DbacksSkins — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:13:43 -0000

Mark Reynolds is the NL Player of the Week

So.... like, HOW did this guy get snubbed out of the All-Star game, again?

Past week: .448 BA, .515 OBP, 1.103 slugging, 6 HRs, 10 RBIs, 1 SB.

Nationals 9, Diamondbacks 2: Decaffeinated Dbacks Defeated in DC

DbacksSkins — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:53:50 -0000

More photos » by Nick Wass - AP

Mark Reynolds tied Albert Pujols for the Major League lead in home runs, but also had a throwing error.

Browse more photos »

We returned you to your regularly scheduled Yusmeiro Petit starts today, as the Petit Unit allowed 4 runs (3 earned) in just 4 innings pitched to get the loss and break his own brief scoreless inning streak. However, Petit wasn't even close to being entirely to blame; he had some help from some vintage early-season clutch hitting and defense, while once again, the Dbacks scored all their runs via the longball. A piss-poor bullpen outing from Scott Schoeneweis, didn't help, either, nor did an easy caught-stealing call.

Story after the jump.

The Arizona Diamondbacks turned in an all-around lethargic and sloppy performance today in a rather sad way to end what had otherwise been a pretty decent road trip. After taking 3 of 4 at the Mets and sweeping 3 games from the Pirates, the Dbacks found themselves on the other end of a sweep, as the Washington Nationals took a 3 game set from Arizona in Washington, DC.

It all started off so well, too! New Snakepit favorite Trent Oeltjen led off his 3rd career major league game with a line drive solo home run barely into the Nationals' bullpen to give the Dbacks a quick 1-0 lead. Pretty good start against a guy who came in with a 7.16 ERA, right? However, the lead rapidly evaporated, as Petit allowed a 2-out ground rule double to Ryan Zimmerman (his first of two), followed by a towering home run from Adam Dunn, and the Nats took a 2-1 lead they would never relinquish.

Neither team scored in the 2nd, although former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez doubled and Petit gave up a single for J.D. Martin's first career hit. In the 3rd, the Nationals began to pull away. Oeltjen beat out a 2 out infield single in the top of the inning, but was easily gunned down trying to steal 2nd base with Ryan Roberts at the plate. In the bottom, Zimmerman led off with his 2nd double of the game, Dunn popped out, and after intentionally walking Josh Willingham, Chris Snyder quickly caught Willingham off the bag. It was a pretty fortunate out, as Petit next uncorked a wild pitch, sending Zimmerman to 3rd. With a chance for Petit to escape the inning unscathed, Elijah Dukes hit a very sharp grounder that ate up Mark Reynolds, bouncing off his glove and over his head into left field. Some 3B might have made that play, but to be fair, it was rightly ruled a hit, as Zimmerman came home to score the last run the Nationals would need. Nationals w/ RISP: 2-4 on the day.

Things looked slightly rosier in the top of the 4th, when Reynolds drew the first of his 2 walks with 2 outs in the inning, followed by a Chad Tracy single, but Chris Snyder flied out. Dbacks w/ RISP: 0-1 on the day. In the bottom of the inning, Petit got two quick outs, and should have pitched a scoreless frame, but Nyjer Morgan singled, stole 2B, and then Cristian Guzman slapped an infield "single" to Reynolds. Guzman may or may not have been safe anyway, but Mark's rushed throw to first allowed Morgan to score as it went by Tracy and to the fence. Nats w/ RISP: 3-6.

The Diamondbacks REALLY squandered opportunities in the 5th and 6th. In the top of the 5th, Alex Romero led off with a single, followed by Chris Young's double with no outs. However, Josh Whitesell popped up for Yusmeiro Petit, (Muchas graciás, said Petit in the dugout) Oeltjen bounced a swinging bunt straight to Martin, and Ryan Roberts grounded out to 2B. Dbacks w/ RISP: 0-4. In the 6th, Stephen Drew and Reynolds drew no-out walks against new Nationals pitcher Tyler Clippard, but Riggleman replaced Clippard with Jason Bergmann, who got Tracy to fly out and Snyder to ground into an inning-killing double-play. Dbacks w/ RISP: 0-6.

Clay Zavada came on and pitched a perfect 5th but had a rough 6th, going single, popout, single, walk, to load the bases with 1 out. AJ Hinch pulled 'Stache for Leo Rosales, who threw 6 straight balls to walk in one of Zavada's baserunners. Rosales then calmed down, getting Zimmerman to ground back to the mound to choke off the run at home, while new catcher Miguel Montero inexplicably threw to 3rd after realizing there was no play at 1st. The decision didn't hurt, as Dunn struck out. Nats w/ RISP: 3-8.

More of the same scoringFAIL for the Dbacks in the 7th, as Romero led off with a single and was immediately killed by Chris Young's GIDP. CY seems to have a unique ability to hit a ground ball JUST when we needed him to strike out or pop up, since the next two batters singled but were stranded by Roberts' K. Dbacks w/ RISP: 0-7. Rosales had a perfect bottom of the inning.

Despite Mark Reynolds' best effort, it went from being a 4 run game to a 7 run game after the Dreaded Eighth Inning (TM). Mark's solo shot with one out made it 5-2 and tied him with Albert Pujols for the most home runs in the majors, but Chad Tracy's subsequent single was erased when Gerardo Parra, pinch hitting for Leo Rosales, grounded into a double play, practically jogging down the line to 1B while doing his best Felipe Lopez impression.

In the bottom, AJ Hinch inexplicably pulled a truly Melvinesque move in bringing in Scott Schoeneweis to face four right-handed batters, a switch-hitter, and one lefty. By now, the results were all too predictable, and CY decided to get in on the action, too: Single; Groundout; Single about 2 feet in front of CY and bobbled; stolen base; single to CY; error on CY; single; sacrifice bunt. Hinch finally pulled Schoeneweis with the score 7-2 and runners on 2nd and 3rd. He lasted for 2 outs, and one of those was a gimme on a sac bunt. Blaine Boyer decided to clear the table, not wanting to have to deal with inherited runners, so he quickly gave up a walk and a single to allow two more of Schoeneweis' runs to score before finally getting the 3rd out. Clearly eager to get on the plane and leave the Nationals' House of Horrors, the Dbacks obediently went down in order in the 9th.

Nobody had a particularly good game today. Trent Oeltjen had an infield single and solo homer, and finished 3-4, but was caught stealing and had an error assessed against him. Reynolds had two walks and another home run, but also an error. Tracy and Romero each had two hits, while Montero and CY(!!) had a hit each and Drew drew a walk. Yusmeiro Petit's ERA went from 5.81 to 5.87; Clay Zavada's went from 2.97 to 3.13; and Scott Schoeneweis' went from 6.63 to 8.24. The team cranked out 10 hits yet only scored 2 runs, partly due to going 0-7 with runners in scoring position and partly because of THREE double plays grounded into.

Something tells me the Dbacks are glad to be on the flight back to Phoenix about now.

Badass of the day: Mark Reynolds, +10.0%

Boarding the bus to Reno: Yusmeiro Petit, -21.5%

Should have stayed in bed: Chris Snyder, -16.3%; Ryan Roberts, -13.4%

Present and accounted for in the Gameday thread were.... well, some guy who had the most comments, and then soco, snakecharmer and Wailord coming in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, respectively. Other posters included Azreous, myself, ZonaBacks10, 4 Corners Fan, drvnlow, mrssoco, katers, TwinnerA, kishi, pygalgia, Zephon, Jim McLennan, unnamedDBacksfan, Gravity, rapdawg, and emilylovesthedbacks.

Hey Dbacks fans! Do you think that was a strike? You could be wrong... but it's probably not your fault.

DbacksSkins — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:09:44 -0000

Hey Dbacks fans! Do you think that was a strike? You could be wrong... but it's probably not your fault.

Great article from Slate on camera angles in baseball broadcasts skewing the fans' view of the strike zone.