SB Nation Blog: Jim McLennan

Gameday Thread, #85: 7/4 vs. Padres

Jim McLennan — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:04:18 -0000

Cha Seung Baek
RHP, 1-4, 5.43

Dan Haren
RHP, 8-4, 2.85

Baseball-Reference.com preview [opens in new window]

Happy Fourth of July, folks. Getting this up here early, since I've got nothing better to do today. Great, isn't it? And look! It's another National League West team! I'd almost forgotten they existed, since we'd been spending our time in exotic locations like Minnesota and Boston, hobnobbing with our country cousins ["What? You mean your roof doesn't open? How barbaric!"] and the New England Yankees respectively. Now, it's back to more familiar territory: beating up on the cellar-dwelling Padres.

How bad are the Padres? They just lost more games in barely 24 hours to the Rockies, than we have to Colorado all season. They have dropped 14 of their past 16, with both wins going to Heath Bell [my fantasy team thanks you]. You know how Davis, Owings and Johnson combined for one win in June? Well, in the Padres' rotation, none of their starters have seen a W in more than three weeks, since June 12. But the offense has been equally inept, scoring 52 runs in those 16 games - fifteen coming in one bizarro game at Coors. That makes 37 in the other 15, or less than two and a half runs per game. And you thought our offense was struggling.

Byung-Hyun Kim makes a return to Chase tonight, now operating under the pseudonym of Cha-Seung Baek. Or maybe it just seems that way, looking at the ERA and W/L record? He did have a couple of decent starts in June, but our offense seems to be clicking a bit. We've had double-digits in hits the past four games in a row, tying a streak back in April - you have to go back to June 2005, to find the last time we had a longer one. Baek would seem a good candidate to help us, with opponents hitting .289 off his this year.

We'll be there in person, and are looking forward to our D-backs t-shirts, if we arrive there early enough. Looks like the game is basically sold out - the team site refuses to cough up two tickets, in any section - so the place should be rockin' on through the fireworks show afterwards. We did contemplate taking the bus down, but the route goes right past Steele Indian School Park, where the Phoenix Fourth of July celebration is going on, so that will probably be a complete mess. Another time, perhaps. Forecasters also say there's a 20% chance of a repeat of last night's storm, which would make things interesting...

One name was notable by its absence from the dogpile around home-plate after yesterday's Matinee Miracle (TM pending). Eric Byrnes, who has not been seen at Chase since he tore his hamstring on Monday, as "he seeks further medical attention." Chris Snyder, on the other hand, was right back in the dugout, fractured testicle or not - an injury which would seem far more likely to me to have "further medical attention," written through it like a stick of Blackpool candy.

Oh, and it might - or might not - be worth flipping over to WGN for the Cubs-Cards game just before our first-pitch, as there is scheduled to be some, ah, additional entertainment, to celebrate life, liberty and the pursuit of...well, I'm not quite sure what. Though I have a sneaking suspicion nothing will happen, except the PayPal account of the participant in question will be increased by hopeful spectators. Still, the founding fathers of this great nation would be proud by such free enterprise...

Brandon Webb is busy resting

Jim McLennan — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:00:39 -0000

'The assignment is to shadow Brandon Webb for six days. The task, made possible by unprecedented access, promises to be a lesson in one man's obsessive desire to dominate. No major league pitcher could be as successful as Webb is, you assume, without thousands of crunches and hundreds of hours in a darkened video room, studying hitters with the focus of a ninja. Wait, who's that guy on the field fiddling with the toy airplane?"

Lolback of the week And delighted I am to have a warm, fuzzy, optimistic one!

Jim McLennan — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:24:57 -0000

Diamondbacks 6, Brewers 5 - The Late, Late, Late, Late, Late Show

Jim McLennan — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:00:42 -0000

Record: 42-42. Pace: 81-81. Change on last season: -4

The rain is falling down
I feel like a dog that's been kicked out into the street
I know that dogs can't drive cars
But that's about the only difference between us now

Well, that totally sucked, didn't it? We strand a battalion of runners, Brandon Webb has another lackluster outing, and the umpires questionably rule a foul-ball a two-run homer for the Brewers. And so, we sit here in the middile of the ninth, three outs away from a shutout, another defeat and out fourth consecutive series loss. Could things really get any worse for the Diamondbacks than they are?

But wait!
There's a rainbow over the freeway
And I think I feel the morning sun
Another song is number one
Golden days have just begun...
Sparks - Change

Wow. Simply, wow. if not quite the biggest comeback in Diamondbacks history - we've come back from six runs down on three occasions - this one could well be the greatest ever, for its lateness and the ferocity of the comeback. Not only did we break up a shut-out by scoring six runs in the ninth, we did it without having a single batter retired, on six hits and a walk. Oh, what the heck: let's relive the whole bottom of the ninth again, shall we?

Milwaukee 5, Arizona 0
Bottom 9th: Arizona
- G. Mota relieved E. Gagne
- R. Hammock singled to shortstop
- C. Burke walked, R. Hammock to second
- A. Ojeda singled to second, R. Hammock to third, C. Burke to second
- B. Shouse relieved G. Mota
- C. Tracy hit for L. Rosales
- C. Tracy doubled to deep center, R. Hammock, A. Ojeda and C. Burke scored
- S. Torres relieved B. Shouse
- J. Upton singled to right center, C. Tracy to third
- O. Hudson doubled to deep left, C. Tracy scored, J. Upton to third
- C. Jackson singled to center, O. Hudson and J. Upton scored
6 runs, 6 hits, 0 errors
Milwaukee 5, Arizona 6

Was there anyone, anywhere who saw that coming? Even Melvin: "I was almost in shock, basically... Don’t ask me." It was a stunning reversal, and one which belied the 0.8% Win Probability we had at the start of the inning. I had to watch things unfold on an unholy mix of Yahoo Gameday - accurate but slow as treacle - and the Gameday Thread, which was quick, but for understandable reasons, largely incoherent, the comments being largely "Wooooooo!" or in Portuguese. :-) Still, my mindset went from "Oh, good: we might not get shutout," through "Well, we might make the score respectable," to "God, it's gonna suck when they blow this," and my final thought, "Woooooooo!" Which might have been in Portuguese too, I don't recall....

Never say die. And it was the little guys - some much maligned - who got it started, Hammock (single), Burke (walk) and Ojeda (single), loading the bases without getting the ball out of the infield. Tracy then defied the odds, clearing the bags against a left-handed pitcher - fortunately, Melvin didn't have a RHB left on the bench - to bring the tying run to the plate. Upton singled, and then O-Dawg added a double to leave the winning run at second, still with no outs. At this point, I was still entirely convinced that somehow, we would find a way to screw up. Hey, we blew second and third with one out last night, so why not go one better this afternoon? However, Conor Jackson rifled a single back up the middle, and the dugout emptied, like we'd just won the World Series. Though this was likely far more improbable than our 2001 comeback in Game Seven.

Frankly, I want to draw a veil over the first eight and a half innings, since they blew chunks. We had five hits, and absolutely no runs at all, despite a host of chances. We had someone on base every inning until the sixth, and in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings, we put our first two men on board - yet still contrived to come away empty-handed in all three. Up until the final, delirious remarkable frame - and I am still convinced we are going to lose it when I watch the FSN replay later tonight - this was just another afternoon of inept Diamondbacks baseball.

Lost in the furore is the worrying fact that Brandon Webb had another poor outing. He allowed nine hits in six innings, walked two, and was tagged for five runs, all earned, to increase his ERA to 3.43. In mitigation, this was bloated somewhat by the umpires' ruling that a ball from Cameron was actually a two-run homer and not a foul, claiming that it managed to graze the foul-pole - replays were inconclusive, I believe, but the case for home-run replay just got a little bit stronger. Can you imagine how it would have been, had those two runs turned out to be the difference in the final score? Kudos to the bullpen, Cruz, Robertson and Rosales, who pitched what turned out to be three very crucial scoreless innings, with the last-named getting his first-ever victory in the major-leagues.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Orlando Hudson, +31.0%
Honorable mention: Conor Jackson, +21.5%
God-emperor of suck: Brandon Webb, -17.9%

The graph is, I suspect, an accurate representation of interest in this afternoon's Gameday Thread - it was heading towards a season low number of comments, before exploding, as noted above, in the bottom of the ninth. Still fairly quiet - I sense a lot of people are perhaps travelling? - but it ended at a respectable 257, with contributions from Muu, TwinnerA, Zephon, Jim McLennan, kishi, Wimb, dahlian, snakecharmer, 4 Corners Fan, KLM [welcome!], DiamondbacksWIn, golfmanthee [welcome!], Augie's Army, emilylovesthedbacks, luckycc, mrssoco, Turambar, soco, IndyDBack and friendly visiting fan SullyBaseball.

Hell of a win, and it keeps us just with a little breathing room over the Dodgers, who also won and must have been thinking they'd be half a game back tonight. It's back into divisional play tomorrow, and advantage is probably to Arizona, since we play the inept Padres, while the Dodgers have to face the surprising Giants. However, they get to miss Lincecum, while Saturday sees Doug Davis face Jake Peavy, so I'm sure our hitters are not looking forward to that. For tonight, however, we will revel in the victory which was snatched, not just from the jaws of defeat, but somewhere down defeat's throat, beyond the dangly bit and nearing the tonsils.

Finally, got an email from Eric Seidman, giving me a heads-up on a nice interview he did, over at Baseball Prospectus, with Max Scherzer - who appears to be a secret stathead. Some very interesting reading there, and it's particularly fascinating to hear his take on BABIP:

Last year [Max's brother] came across the whole BABIP theory and explained it to me, but I was initially very skeptical because I just could not imagine all pitchers were essentially the same. As my season went on, I kept an eye on it, and he was right—pitchers really do not have control over the balls put in play, [that's on] the defense and luck. I’m very numbers-oriented myself, so I kept digging into this wealth of information. Sure enough, the K/BB and HR/9 were really the driving numbers behind the success of pitching. It really made sense to me, but the pitcher inside couldn’t comprehend that, of everything involved, just three outcomes can determine one’s success.

Gameday Thread, #86: 8/3 vs. Brewers

Jim McLennan — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:59:03 -0000

Manny Parra
LHP, 8-2, 3.95

Brandon Webb
RHP, 12-4, 3.21

Baseball-Reference.com preview [opens in new window]

Running a little late with the thread here: I actually remembered it was a day game, but had to go in for my monthly chat with the boss. Survived that, so tossing this up quickly in my morning break. We need a win here, after the total disaster which was last night - Webb takes the mound, and after a couple of shaky outings, returned to normal form last time, with a quality start. However, Parra has an impressive record, and restricted us to one run over seven innings when we faced him in Milwaukee.

The offense has shown some signs of life lately, and has hit .302 in the past five games. However, last night proved that this isn't enough, by and of itself, to guarantee victory - not when defense, base-running and managerial incompetence all weigh down the other side of the scales. It's becoming abundantly clear that the team needs a short, sharp shake-up, and Melvin's team meeting wasn't it. Not much more I can add. Let's get the victory and split the series.

Diamondbacks 3, Brewers 4 - Fire Melvin

Jim McLennan — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:13:37 -0000

Record: 42-43. Pace: 80-82. Change on last season: -5.

I'm just about ready to burst. I wasn't able to post relevant comments in tonight's Gameday Thread, due to the prohibition on discussing the actual game. I really had to restrain myself, because this was the most hopelessly mismanaged and misplayed game I think I have ever seen. I hardly know where to start.

What about with our basepath psychopaths? Two innings into this game, we had five hits, two hit batters...and scored exactly one run. The "aggressive baserunning" beloved of Grace - and, it appears, Melvin - comes back to bite us with a piranha-like vengeance. First, Drew is gunned down trying to take third, and then Young is thrown out at home, trying to score from second on an infield single. Whisky Tango Foxtrot? That's probably two more runs we should have scored - at the time, I said to Mrs. SnakePit, "If that ends up costing us dearly, we know who to blame." And, oh, look what happened... :-(

The Petit Unit pitched very, very well. Retired the first nine batters he faced, and allowed only two hits and no walks through six innings, with just one run allowed. Heck, Micah might not have a job when he comes back. I'm wondering what Yusmeiro's future in the organization will be? We have the rotation largely sewn up next year as well [I'm assuming Scherzer replaces Johnson at this point], so there doesn't seem to be a spot for him. Still, he is young enough yet: only 23, and his birth isn't until November. Getting him for Jorge Julion definitely counts as one of JB's better trades. However, I think this is probably his last year of minor-league options, so we may be faced with some difficult decisions between now and next spring.

Chad Qualls should not be allowed into any game where the tying run is at the plate. He is just too much of a threat to cough it up, doing so tonight, even though he came into the inning with two outs and the bases empty. He allowed back-to-back hits for extra bases, a triple and a double. Mark Grace pointed out that both came on hanging sliders, when that is far from his best pitch. Maybe someone just needs to take the slider out of Qualls' repertoire? Good work by Slaten to get a pair of hard-hitting lefties, in Fielder and Branyan. Shame it was largely for naught. Why was Cruz - pronounced fit and ready to go before the game - not brought in? By just about any measure, he is the better pitcher.

I know I've complained before, but I'm going to keep doing it, while Melvin keeps asking his best batters to put down goddamn sacrifice bunts. Drew gets on with a single: Hudson, the second-best hitter on the team, is then asked to sacrifice. We've all seen how well that works, and lo, he fails to get the bunt down. With two outs, the bunt has to be taken off, and O-Dawg whacks a single into left-field. +8% to Win Probability: 8%. Then, Melvin asks the best hitter on the team, Conor Jackson, to sacrifice. CoJack does at least get the bunt down - even this, probably the best of all bunting situations, with two on and no outs, increases Win Probability by 0.6%. And the run still fails to score, as Reynolds and Young both ground out. I wonder how many times a bunt has let to us scoring any additional runs this year: I will have to check, but I suspect it's not many.

The Brewers immediately homered off Peña to take the lead, and though Upton tied the game up again with a homer of his own in the bottom of the eighth, more Melvin mismanagement murdered us in the ninth. Reynolds had pinch-hit for Tracy in the eighth, but stayed in the game to play first-base. That would be a position he has never played in the majors, and has a massive eight games of experience there, over his entire professional career. Seeing that, I was in absolutely no way surprised, when the first ball hit his way ate him up for an error - a base-runner which subsequently became the Brewers' winning run. Way to manage your bench, Melvin.

Of course, thanks to brilliant roster management, we had a bench of four. Connor Robertson - used for three innings last night, and so presumably a waste of space today (no offense, Connor) - could have been sent back down, with an outfielder like Romero called up. That way, even if Reynolds was the choice to pinch-hit, we could have moved Jackson to first and still had someone to cover the outfield. Mind you, on that front, some managers wouldn't send the team K leader to the plate, with the go-ahead run on third and less than two outs. Why not use Hammock – .a career 277/.328/.447 vs. LHP, and only a 13.2% K rate? Oh, of course: the ever-looming possibility Montero might go down with a fractured testicle too and we’d be left without a catcher… Sheesh. Dodged a bullet there, didn’t we? Melvin, however, is the Mad Scientist. Mad? Going by this performance, the men in white coats have given up on the drugs and gone straight for the frontal lobotomy.

We should have buried the Brewers. We pounded out twelve hits - but managed to push only three runs across home-plate. That's the first time we've had so many hits and lost because we got such a low return, since July 20th, 2005, when we scored twice on 12 hits against Florida, and were defeated 9-2. I guess the hits are something which is good to see. In games #41-80, we reached double figures only six times, but have managed to do it four of the past five games, so that's a recent improvement - and a small measure of comfort on a night where our lead over the Dodgers got slashed to 1.5 games, the smallest it has been since April 8. There is now a very real possibility we might not be in first at the All-Star break.

Four hits for Hudson - I was also very impressed by him taking second on an outfield fly in the ninth, though that went for nothing - plus two for Drew and Young. Ojeda, leading off [perhaps the only thing Melvin got right all night], reached safely three times, on a hit, walk and HBP. I also have to commend Young for a fabulous catch made up against the fence in left-center, to end the top of the ninth inning, which certainly saved a run. On the other hand, he also grounded into the double-play which ended the game, with the tying run just a bloop away. The baseball gods giveth, and the baseball gods taketh away... Tonight, it was almost all the latter.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Justin Upton, +32.8%
Honorable mentions: Hudson, +26.8; Petit, +24.1%
God-emperor of suck: Chris Young, -30.2%
Dishonorable mention: Lyon, -29.1%; Peña, -18.6%; Qualls, -17.5%

Pretty much all or nothing tonight, as far as Win Probability goes. I don't think I've ever seen us with three players about +20, in a loss, though the only other one in positive territory at all was Doug Slaten at +7.6%. Fascinating Gameday Thread; I think that the "non-discussion" concept proved a lot harder than most people expected! Lot of fun though, so thanks to Muu, DbacksSkins, Diamondhacks, 4 Corners Fan, mrssoco, kishi, emilylovesthedbacks, TwinnerA, luckycc, unnamedDBacksfan, IndyDBack, mr.tunes, hotclaws, aricat, dahlian, seton hall snake pit, ChandlerDad and soco for their contributions. Won't do that again for a while, I suspect!

As noted, it cuts our lead down to 1.5 games, and also sinks us below .500 for only the third day since the end of the 2006 season. To add to the woes, we may have lost Byrnes for the season. Melvin says, "Whether or not he has to have surgery will probably be the telltale. Right now, we're still trying to figure out how severe it is in there and how far the tendon is off the bone. We will decide if surgery is the way to go or if it's not the way to go. We're still trying to wait on that one. It becomes a decision on his part too, and whether or not he wants to do the surgery based on the opinions he gets after listening to all the proper personnel. There will be a lot of eyes on this one." The story also says Byrnes has not even been in the clubhouse since the injury, which is...interesting. There was some good news, however, in that Snyder does not require surgery on his fractured testicle. I think we're all relieved to hear that - Snyder most of all.

Oh, well: the first three games of this series have gone pretty much the way I expected. Hopefully the fourth will as well, with Webb taking the mound tomorrow. As a thought, I'm wondering if we'll adjust the schedule between now and the All-Star break. If we keep the normal rotation, he'll pitch twice before the break: tomorrow and on June 9th. But because of the day off we have on the 7th, he could pitch on the 8th, then again on the 13th, in the final game before the break - and then on the 18th, the first game back after it. That might well remove any chance of him pitching in the All-Star Game, but frankly, that feels very secondary to me at the moment.

Gameday Thread, #85: 8/2 vs. Brewers

Jim McLennan — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:39:22 -0000

Seth McClung
RHP, 5-3, 4.25

Yusmeiro Petit
RHP, 0-1, 4.70

Baseball-Reference.com preview w [opens in new window]

This is the non-game Gameday Thread. No discussion of the actual game will be permitted, and any comments reporting on it will be deleted without warning. General baseball topics, other games and even team-related issues are permissible, as long as they do not relate to the evening's events. Here are some possible alternative topics for discussion.

Tattoos. Would you get one? If so, what and where? If not, why?
Injuries worse than a fractured testicle.
Hottest people in Hollywood
Most and least favorite foods.
What is on your iPod?
Favorite video game - arcade or console
Barry Bonds: antiChrist or D-backs savior? [Ongoing...]
Have you ever walked out of a movie mid-showing? What movie and why?

I think that should be good enough to start with...

Gameday Thread, #84: 8/1 vs. Brewers

Jim McLennan — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:47:51 -0000

Jeff Suppan
RHP, 4-6, 4.05

Randy Johnson
LHP, 4-6, 4.94

Baseball-Reference.com preview [opens in new window]

Executive decision. The planned non-game Gameday Thread has been postponed until tomorrow. We've got IZW tonight and I completely forgot the laptop, so I won't be able to police it and make sure no-one mentions the baseball. We will therefore hold it over, for Micah or the Petit Unit tomorrow, and tonight's thread will be a normal one - albeit likely just as random. I apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause. Continue to submit topics for discussion in the comments tonight: I'll come up with a list and will then throw them into tomorrow's thread as the need arises.

Still waiting for any word on what roster moves will be made. Someone will need to be brought up to replace Byrnes, but if Owings can't go tomorrow, they might add an extra pitcher for a few days instead, with Petit taking Owings' start. Snyder should be fine, I think, despite his "contusion" - accompanied by some swelling, apparently, though in his shoes, swelling would be the last thing on my mind. Montero usually catches Johnson's starts, so Chris will get likely the night off anyway, so can spend the night applying soothing lotion. :-)

Despite - or perhaps because of - last night's decent showing, runs might be hard to come by. Since April 26, Arizona have scored more than four runs on fourteen occasions. However, in the fourteen games immediately following those, we have averaged only 2.5 runs, and never scored more than four. Be nice if that streak of consistent inconsistency - as it were - came to an end tonight.

Diamondbacks 6, Brewers 3: Body Count

Jim McLennan — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:53:50 -0000

Record: 42-41. Pace: 82-80. Change on last season: -4

As this game wore on, it seemed the question was going to be, less whether Arizona would score enough runs, than whether they would have enough able bodies to man all nine positions. First, Eric Byrnes basically collapsed half-way between second and third, as he tried to steal a base in the second: he never even made it to third. Though he limped off the infield under his own steam, he went straight to the dugout, and it looks likely that he is going back onto the DL with a re-occurrence of the hamstring injury which kept him out for four weeks earlier this month. If it is the same problem, one has to wonder whether he came back too soon, before the injury healed properly - especially since it came basically the first time he hit full speed. If so, whose fault is it? Byrnes, for claiming fitness, or the Diamondbacks' training staff for not spotting it?

He was replaced in left-field by Jeff Salazar, and the game continued. However, in the fourth inning,. Chris Snyder also got taken out of the game - in rather unfortunate fashion. The Republic describes it as "an unspecified injury," but here's what happened. A foul ball ricocheted off the ground and up into... Well, let's be honest here: Snyder's crotch. Now, catchers do wear a protective cup, but that's designed to protect the family jewels from frontal assault. Judging by the way our catcher dropped to the ground like a stunned heifer, this ball managed to bypass the armor with a degree of accuracy that would have made Lee Harvey Oswald proud. Mark Grace was not exactly sympathetic, squeaking "I'm not quite ready yet!" in a high-pitched voice as Snyder got back down, somewhat uncomfortably, behind the plate. Chris toughed out the inning, but was replaced by Montero for his at-bat in the bottom of the fourth.

The fifth inning saw another bump at home-plate. We had men on second and third, when Jackson hit a ball to right-field. Hart successfully duped Ojeda, on third, into thinking he'd have to tag to score, even though the ball dropped in front of him. Augie scurried home, getting there at the same time as the ball, and ended up colliding with Kendall and going down in a heap. The ball got away, and Drew scored behind Ojeda as well, though there seemed to be a bit of a clinch going on between Augie and Brewers' catcher Kendall. Not quite sure who was to blame there, but Kendall probably needs to pick on someone his own size. No-one touches the Littlest Ballplayer and gets away with it. :-)

That play, and a subsequent RBI double by Reynolds, proved to be the turning points in the game, giving Arizona a three-run lead. Not that it was all chocolate and flowers from there on, the sixth inning being particularly interesting, shall we say. It started with Davis plunking Prince Fielder, presumably some kind of attempt by Doug to prove that, yes, he can hit the broad side of a barn. Two walks followed, and Davis was yanked in favor of - cue screams from the assembled masses - Mr. Inherited Runner, Chad Qualls. Yes, probably the last person we wanted to see with the bases loaded, and a mob with torches began to assemble in the foyer at Chase Field. He then walked in a run for Milwaukee, but with the tying run a bloop away, managed to get Weeks swinging for the third out. The mob decided to go to Chili's instead, and put away their copies of 'Skins visual aid regarding Qualls.

Mark Reynolds was the offensive force of the game, going 3-for-3 with a walk, and all three hits being for extra-bases - including his 17th homer of the year, matching his total from all of last year, despite 91 fewer at-bats to date. The three runs driven in gave Special K 52 in total, and he is currently on pace to become the first Diamondback to reach three figures for a season, since Luis Gonzalez had 104 RBI in 2003. Augie Ojeda had two hits from the lead-off spot, and scored both times he got on base. This makes perfect sense, since it's what the lead-off hitter is supposed to do, and his on-base percentage (.394) is second only to Jackson (.400). Certainly beats Drew (.297) and Byrnes (.272), though since he was only in the starting line-up to give O-Dawg a day off, expect normal service to be resumed tomorrow. Drew had two hits, and Montero a pair of walks.

Doug Davis picked up the win, but his control issues in the sixth meant he fell one out short of a fourth straight quality start. He began in somewhat wobbly form, falling behind 2-0 before retiring the second Brewer of the night, but buckled down from there. The only further damage was the run charged to him on Qualls' bases-loaded walk in the sixth: Davis's final line was 5.2 innings, with five hits, four walks and three strikeouts. Qualls came back out for the seventh and pitched around a lead-off double, while Pena came in for the eighth and Lyon the ninth. Be very interesting to see what happens in the event of a close game tomorrow, as both Pestileñce and War have now pitched in the past three games. Cruz to close and Qualls to set-up?

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Mark Reynolds, +25.8%
Honorable mention: Stephen Drew, +12.8%
God-emperor of suck: Justin Upton, -10.1%

Looked like it was going to be a low-key Gameday Thread early on, but just as the Diamondbacks did, participants kicked up their output in the middle innings, and finished strong - albeit somewhat off-topic. Dbackskins cracked the two hundred mark, while everyone else lollygagged in double-digits: also present were kishi, 4 Corners Fan, hotclaws, seton hall snake pit, DbacksSkins, soco, unnamedDBacksfan, mrssoco, emilylovesthedbacks, Muu, snakecharmer, LucaMaz3, DiamondbacksWIn and The Main Man, so thanks to all those who showed up.

Dodgers lost. Giants lost. Rockies lost spectacularly, coughing up an 8-3 lead to lose 15-8 to the Padres, for their eighth defeat in a row. The net result is that the standings in the NL West are basically unchanged from what they were on June 8, even though we've gone 8-12 in that time:

	June 8	June 30
Arizona	-	-
Los Angeles	4	3.5
San Francisco	6	6
San Diego	7	9.5
Colorado	10	10

Finally, a quick note on Micah Owings, since injuries seem to be the theme of the day. It's still up in the air whether he'll make his scheduled start on Wednesday: He said, "We're planning on it right now, but we'll see how it feels after I do some more treatment... I wish I could explain it. When I went down for the ball, my lower right side and upper glute just locked up on me... I've never had anything like that happen." The Petit Unit looks likely to get the start if Owings is not ready to go.

Oh, and tomorrow is a special Gameday Thread, in which all discussion of the game in the comments will be prohibited while it is in progress. Marshals will be carefully monitoring for any violations of this condition and all violators will be punished harshly. Suggestions of alternative topics to discuss are welcome.

AZ SnakePit Fantasy Baseball: Week 13

Jim McLennan — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:18:59 -0000

Week 13 Results

AZ SnakePit 1, Ignatius J. Rallies 8
Rallies cruised to a very comfortable win, getting two wins and seven K's from Buerhle, while Teixeira had three homers and seven RBI and Lowell had six runs and seven RBI. SnakePit's sole point came thanks to Phillips' three stolen-bases, and Nathan had three saves for them.

Douchebaggery 6, GregSchulteOverdrive 2
Neither side caught fire at the plate - they combined for only four HR and 28 RBI: nobody on either side drove in more than three. Douche had the edge, getting seven runs from Upton and five by Schumaker, took SB 5-0, while three pitchers got a save. Moyer notched 15 K's for Greg.

dbacktom 4, warlords 4
The Game of the Week saw the two sides totally deadlocked: SB and, remarkably, WHIP both ended level. tom led on offense, Crawford and Ankiel each homering three times. However, their pitchers had no wins and a 6.75 ERA. Papelbon had three saves for war, while Garland's 1.00 WHIP was crucial.

The Fighting Amish 5, last place 4
Amish had to fight hard for the win, after last took four of the five hitting categories: Quentin had two HR, 5 RBI and an SB. But Amish rode Lincecum to 11 K's and a zero ERA, and Santana added 12 K's. Their staff had a 2.06 ERA on the week, and Lincecum's win was enough for a split there, and overall victory.

Tucson Myth 8, Shenanigans 2.0 2
Delgado's nine RBI game in New York powered Myth's offense, helped by six stolen bases from Pierre. Shen hit .299 and got seven RBI from Cano, but a 7.62 ERA sunk their chances. Garza had a W and 10 K's for Myth, while Jones had a W and a Sv as they swept pitching on their way to an easy win.

7-2 Offsuiters 4, Kapsaicin Kids 4
A very even game: both hitting and pitching ended 2-2, with one category tied. 7-2 got seven RBI from Berkman, but Kids countered with three HR by Wright. Similarly, on the mound, Kids got 15 K from Lowe and three saves by Wilson, but Billingsley (W + zero ERA) and Bergman (W + 0.93 WHIP) were as good for Kids.

Adriano Rosario's 7, Crazy VIII's 3
VII's can count themselves a bit unlucky: three Wins and a 2.90 ERA were not good enough, Rosario getting four and a 2.62 ERA - Harden had a W and 11 K's for them, while Peavy had 12 K's for VIII. At the plate, Rosario got three HR and ten RBI from Longoria, and they took four of the five categories.

Desert Dingleberries 5, Blonde Streaks 4
Blonde might just have the best all-time pitching line: 6 W, 5 Sv, 42 K, 0.78 ERA, 0.89 WHIP. Wow. Brocail got two wins in relief, but Burnett had two wins and 18 K's for Desert. They also dominated at the plate, Beltre driving in eight and Victorino stealing three. Pedroia had seven runs and two HR for Blonde.

Desert Storm BC 3, Wimboes Barmy Army 7
Abreu was Wimboes' star, with 6 R, 9 RBI and 3 SB, as the team overall hit .298, to take all but one of the offensive points. Storm got two HR and seven RBI from Dye. Lackey had two wins and 15 K's for Wimboes, but Storm took both, with Rodriguez getting a win and nine K's.

Arizona Muugens 2, SHUperMen 7
SHU were hardly an offensive tornado - .261, 6 HR, 23 RBI - but took all hitting points, and that was the difference. Ramirez and Hart each had two HR for them. On the mound things were even, a W and 14 K for Sheets [SHU] being countered by 12 K's for Beckett [Muugens]. Neither side managed to save a game during the week.

Standings

Rank	Team	W-L-T	Pct	GB	Last Week	Waiver	Moves
1.	warlords	74-42-14	.623	-	4-4-2	8	12
2.	The Fighting Amish	73-49-8	.592	4	5-4-1	18	41
3.	dbacktom	69-50-11	.573	6.5	4-4-2	16	9
4.	Adriano Rosario's	70-52-8	.569	7	7-3-0	13	37
5.	Desert Storm BC	64-53-13	.542	10.5	3-7-0	10	10
6.	Desert Dingleberries	65-57-8	.531	12	5-4-1	11	18
7.	7-2 Offsuiters	61-53-16	.531	12	4-4-2	15	9
8.	GregSchulteOverdrive	63-55-12	.531	12	2-6-2	7	24
9.	Ignatius J. Rallies	63-59-8	.515	14	8-1-1	19	21
10.	Douchebaggery	58-57-15	.504	15.5	6-2-2	12	22
11.	AZ SnakePit	59-61-10	.492	17	1-8-1	9	14
12.	Crazy VIII's	60-66-4	.477	19	3-7-0	20	47
13.	Shenanigans 2.0	57-63-10	.477	19	2-8-0	1	1
14.	Wimboes Barmy Army	56-64-10	.469	20	7-3-0	5	26
15.	Tucson Myth	56-65-9	.465	20.5	8-2-0	2	-
16.	Arizona Muugens	53-62-15	.465	20.5	2-7-1	6	12
17.	SHUperMen	52-71-7	.427	25.5	7-2-1	4	4
18.	Kapsaicin Kids	51-71-8	.423	26	4-4-2	14	15
19.	Blonde Streaks	50-71-9	.419	26.5	4-5-1	3	9
20.	last place	45-78-7	.373	32.5	4-5-1	17	39

Week 14 Games

AZ SnakePit vs. Desert Dingleberries
Douchebaggery vs. Ignatius J. Rallies
dbacktom vs. GregSchulteOverdrive
The Fighting Amish vs. warlords
Tucson Myth vs. last place
7-2 Offsuiters vs. Shenanigans 2.0
Adriano Rosario's vs. Kapsaicin Kids
Crazy VIII's vs. SHUperMen
Desert Storm BC vs. Blonde Streaks
Arizona Muugens vs. Wimboes Barmy Army

An even easier pick for Game of the Week, as the top two face off in a battle of the titans, Amish vs. warlords. Amish have put together four wins in a row, with a 27-12 record over that time, but warlords showed last week that they didn't get to the top just because of a weak schedule, holding dbacktom to a tie.Their outfield Red Sox duo of Ramirez and Drew have combined for 31 homers and 100 RBI already. However, Amish's 1-2 punch of Lincecum and Santana, with Sherrill's 26 saves, are a formidable opponent.

SB Nation Blog: Jim McLennan

Gameday Thread, #85: 7/4 vs. Padres

Cha Seung BaekRHP, 1-4, 5.43

Dan HarenRHP, 8-4, 2.85

Brandon Webb is busy resting

Lolback of the week And delighted I am to have a warm, fuzzy, optimistic one!

Diamondbacks 6, Brewers 5 - The Late, Late, Late, Late, Late Show

Gameday Thread, #86: 8/3 vs. Brewers

Manny ParraLHP, 8-2, 3.95

Brandon WebbRHP, 12-4, 3.21

Diamondbacks 3, Brewers 4 - Fire Melvin

Gameday Thread, #85: 8/2 vs. Brewers

Seth McClungRHP, 5-3, 4.25

Yusmeiro PetitRHP, 0-1, 4.70

Gameday Thread, #84: 8/1 vs. Brewers

Jeff SuppanRHP, 4-6, 4.05

Randy JohnsonLHP, 4-6, 4.94

Diamondbacks 6, Brewers 3: Body Count

AZ SnakePit Fantasy Baseball: Week 13

Cha Seung Baek
RHP, 1-4, 5.43

Dan Haren
RHP, 8-4, 2.85

Manny Parra
LHP, 8-2, 3.95

Brandon Webb
RHP, 12-4, 3.21

Seth McClung
RHP, 5-3, 4.25

Yusmeiro Petit
RHP, 0-1, 4.70

Jeff Suppan
RHP, 4-6, 4.05

Randy Johnson
LHP, 4-6, 4.94