SB Nation User Blog: snakecharmer

Chad Tracy Activated from DL

snakecharmer — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:18:33 -0000

Chad Tracy Activated from DL

Chad Tracy has been activated from the disabled list (strained muscles). Reliever Leo Rosales was optioned back down to Reno.

If Tracy can regain his form - he was just coming around when he was injured - it'll be good to have him at 1B and Reynolds back at 3B.

Angels 12, Diamondbacks 8 - Wherein Arizona Plays To New Levels Of Epic Fail

snakecharmer — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:16 -0000

Record: 30-46. Pace: 64-98. Change on last season: -9. Change on 2004: +3

I hate for the title to be that brutal, but it's the truth. The Arizona Diamondbacks did not show up to play baseball today, they showed to play hot potato with the baseball, avoiding catching it and fielding it at all possible costs. Did you think things couldn't get any worse than the bunt-home run they allowed yesterday? Well, it did...

The game started out well enough, with the Diamondbacks managing to execute some fundamental small ball. Base hits and sacrifices scored Felipe Lopez and Justin Upton to put the Dbacks up 2-0 after the first inning. Max Scherzer was pitching well, throwing strikes, and faced the minimum through 3 innings thanks to some good defense by Miguel Montero on a caught stealing and a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play. However, Scherzer's pitch count was near 50 after only 3 innings - something he still needs to work on if he wants to start going deeper into games.

Things fell apart in the 4th and 5th innings. A single and two walks loaded the bases for the Angels, and with two out, Gary Matthews Jr. doubled down the right field line to score all three base runners. The first error of the game, on third baseman Augie Ojeda, allowed Matthews to advance to third base - where he promptly scored on a straight steal of home. In fact, Montero had the baseball in time, he just completely missed the tag on Matthews, and the score was 4-2. Arizona couldn't capitalize on a strange play in the bottom of the frame - two runners on base, including Augie Ojeda who stalled running to first and by all counts should've been out by 10 steps - and the score remained.

Now, those baserunners in the 4th were Max Scherzer's responsibility, but he did not deserve the fate that befell him in the 5th inning. The first Angel (the pitcher) was safe on a bobble by Mark Reynolds at first base. Then Justin Upton had a ball clank on his glove in right field - second error, second would-be out. Then Felipe Lopez just completely missed a ball right through the wickets for what might have been a double play ball - third error, third and forth outs. With 3 runs across and the inning not getting any better, A.J. Hinch pulled Scherzer for Leo Rosales. Three pitches later, Rosales allowed a 2-run homer to Juan Rivera. Oh but it's not over there, folks. Morales tripled (still only one out) and missed two scoring opportunities, either of which would have accounted for error #4 of the inning had Kendry Morales actually scored. The throw on the triple from Upton missed like two or three cutoff men but Morales stayed at third base. After a pop fly to Upton, he then airmailed the ball home 15 feet over Montero's head - but Morales had respected the threat and stayed at third. Finally, the 9th batter of the inning ended it for Los Angeles.

Arizona managed to make somewhat of a comeback in this game, particularly in the 6th inning - the KidKaster inning, and this kid was surprisingly good. They actually let him, you know, call the game and not just sit there answering uncomfortable questions. Having scored 1 in the 5th, Arizona then had a 5-run inning themselves - a 2-run double by Clark, and singles by Drew, Reyolds, Parra (mirred in a 1-for-18 w/ RISP slump) and Montero raised the score to 9-8. Well, now that's just a one-run game! The offense is coming to life, the Angels pitchers look a little shaky... The previous high in a comeback this season was only 4 runs - could Arizona actually rally from 9-2 to tie the game?

The short answer - no. Zavada continues to be the lone bright spot in the bullpen and pitched yet another scoreless inning (with the help of his infield behind him) to extend his streak to 15 games, but Jon Rauch gave up a solo home run in the 8th and Tony Peña continues to self implode and allowed a 2-run shot in the 9th. Arizona's offense could not mount any sort of attack against the Angels' relievers - Bulger, Speier and Fuentes pitched the 7th, 8th and 9th and only Bulger allowed a 2-out double by Lopez. Los Angeles pulled away in this one, and the Diamondbacks sputtered to a 12-8 defeat.

God-Emperor of Suck: The Defense (-10000%)
Dishonorable Mention: Max Scherzer (-36.0%)
Just Barely Mentionable: Miguel Montero (+16.7%)

Clearly, fangraphs does not chart defensive WPA. It's kind of hard to tell from the play log the combined sucktitude of the errors, but really, why would we want to put numbers to that anyway. I really felt we were about to surpass our 5-error game of 9 years ago, but no, the defensive miscues were just counted as bad fundamental baseball. Not much positive to talk about in the gameday thread (except for Muu being thrilled about Brazil's win earlier today), though there were 270 comments. Jim - you'll have to have an open fire zone when more people are actually around! I lead the way with 56, kishi not far behind at 48. The other 19 people present were unnamedDBacksfan, Giannaros, Jim McLennan, AJforAZ, pygalgia, sayheyupton, Muu, 4 Corners Fan, Zephon, katers, soco, TwinnerA, gasgarza, Diamondhacks, Fiona, jazzbo13, Wailord, emilylovesthedbacks, and jonny-yuma.

And so the Diamondbacks end interleague play with a 5-10 record, thanks two two sweeps by the Mariners and Angels, and having lost 8 of their last 9. They hit the road to face some opponents they are at least somewhat familiar with - the Cincinatti Reds and Colorado Rockies. Off-day tomorrow, folks... enjoy not losing while you can.

[Jim's notes] One thing I couldn't find mentioned anywhere is that the team actually held a team meeting before yesterday's game. That was their third in less than two weeks - curiously, each coming with Max Scherzer on the mound. The other two were followed by wins, this one...not so much. Here's the audio clippage: remember, this took place prior to the fiasco which unfolded yesterday.

Audio courtesy of KTAR 620

There's also some fuss over Justin Upton's reaction at the end of the inning reported in the Republic today: "After fans aired their displeasure with boos and mock cheers, Upton responded by fake-tossing a ball into the stands at the end of the sixth." It also reports that neither Upton, Lopez or Reynolds were available to speak to the media after the game. Normally, this kind of thing would seem trivial, but the way things have been going of late, it's certainly not any help.

Rangers 9, Diamondbacks 8 - Rally Backs Twice Fall Short; Consolation Prize of Free Armless Tacos

snakecharmer — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:10:40 -0000

More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

REYNOLDSSMASH! Mark's two, 2-run home runs were not enough to save Arizona's series against the Rangers, and the Diamondbacks went on to lose 9 to 8. But, hey, there are free tacos tomorrow night...

Browse more photos »

Thanks, Jim, for raising the bar by saying my recap would be as good as the past few days! It would help if I had anything spectacular to work with... but, really, aside from some timely home runs, the only good thing about tonight's game was the giant walking taco. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

The Diamondbacks tried to win only their third series of the year at home tonight in the rubber match against the AL West-leading Texas Rangers. The second batter of tonight's game was Omar Vizquel, who smacked the first hit of the game to right field for his 2,678th career hit. With that, he passed Luis Aparicio to become the Venezuelan leader for hits. But, pitcher Jon Garland was just toying with him, and Vizquel was then part of an inning-ending double play. In the bottom of the frame, Mark Reynolds took advantage of Justin Upton's speed and smashed a home run for a 2-0 lead over the Rangers. That lead, however, was short-lived. In the top of the 3rd inning, the wheels came off the wagon for Garland and the Diamondbacks' infield defense. (You'd think they'd practice this every once in a while... oh wait...) The inning started with two men on and nobody out, and after a sacrifice bunt by the pitcher, a walk loaded the bases.

Dude, Garland. You don't just put people on base ahead of Omar Vizquel and Michael Young, because what do you think is going to happen?? If you guessed a botched double-play ball by Reynolds at first, a bases-loaded walk to Young, and then another booted double-play ball by Augie Ojeda at third... well, you would be correct. Ojeda redeemed himself with another chance at the double play to end the inning, but not before the 2-0 score became 3-2 in favor of Texas. The Rangers scored two more runs in the 5th on an Andruw Jones home run. Justin Upton's speed once again helped him score in the 6th inning - this time on a wild pitch - but the Rangers got that one right back in the 7th.

Okay. Pop quiz time. Bottom of the 7th, you're down 6 to 3, and you pinch hit for Garland with two outs and nobody on. Do you: a) send new backup catch Luke Carlin up for his first chance of the year; b) ask Chris Young to pinch hit and do something good; or c) put in Tony Clark for a pinch hit home run. If you guessed A, you would be an idiot, because you don't burn your backup catcher in Carlin. If you guessed B, okay, I don't blame you, because you knew that CY was feeling better and was available to pinch hit today. If you guessed C, ding ding ding, congratulations you could be a big-league manager! A.J. Hinch sent up Mr. Veteran Presence himself, and Clark knocked the teeth off the ball, homering to deep right field. That was his third home run of the season (first since Opening Day) and 250th of his career.

Clay Zavada came in to pitch the top of the 8th inning, and he pitched a very fast, 3-up-3-down inning. He was in, he got a fly ball and two strikeouts and he raced back to the dugout. Would the momentum shift go with him? Why yes it would! Upton, once again safe at first because of his speed, would score on a monster 2-run, game-tying home run by none other than Mark Reynolds!! Frank Francisco had left a couple of pitches that Reynolds had missed earlier in the at-bat, but he did not miss that one and promptly deposited it in the bleachers. (I think that's where it went?) The game was tied at 6 all, and Garland was off the hook for his team's poor defense. (He went 6.1 innings and 4 of his 6 runs were earned but it certainly felt less like his fault than his numbers show.)

After that, the Diamondbacks' bullpen was used up pretty quickly - after Gutierrez in the 7th and Zavada in the 8th, Chad Qualls came in for the 9th, Tony Peña needed Scott Schoeneweis's help to get out of the 10th, and Jon Rauch pitched a great 11th inning, working around more bad plays behind him (or rather in front of him, as the error was on Miguel Montero). The Diamondbacks' offense stayed pretty quiet in extra innings, unfortunately. Into the 12th we go, and out comes one of our last hopes, Esmerling Vasquez, who looked like he'd have to go multiple frames tonight. (Honestly, I'm a bit surprised A.J. didn't send Rauch back out - he was only at 20 pitches...) Alas.... no, that was not necessary. Because, you see, with one on base and two outs, after a dropped foul tip by Montero on a 2-2 pitch, Rangers first baseman Chris Davis (who ended the night 4-for-5) would hit a 2-run home run to deep right field. David Murphy followed that up with a solo blast to make it 9-6 going into the bottom of the inning.

Believe it or not, the Diamondbacks actually had a chance in the bottom of the 12th inning. It was our turn to have two on and nobody out, and Drew and Upton would eventually score on a bloop hit by Montero. Unfortunately, Ryan Roberts couldn't get the ball out of the infield, and he grounded out to end the game, 9 to 8.

Master of his Domain: Mark Reynolds, +39.3%
God-Emperor of Suck: Esmerling Vazquez, -46.3%
Dishonorable Mention: Ryan Roberts, -29.3%

A couple of other notes about tonight's game. Eric Byrnes, hit on the hand by a pitch in the 2nd inning, will be out 4-8 weeks after surgery to repair his left metacarpal. A.J. Hinch still has not yet been thrown out of a game as a big-league manager, despite his efforts in the 10th inning while arguing a bad call on a pickoff throw at first base. Everybody, and I mean everybody - fans, broadcasters, Snake Pitters, probably the players (though it wasn't as funny as last time) - wanted him to get tossed; he needs to take some lessons from Kirk Gibson or soco on the proper things to say! And amusingly, this 12 inning, 4 hour, 22 minute night game was Texas's getaway game - they fly back home tonight to face San Diego this weekend.

Fairly active gameday thread, for all the up-and-down action we had. We topped 650 comments by 17 different users. DbacksSkins, soco and snakecharmer each had over 100 comments. Also present (but all below 70) were: AZBOMBERS, unnamedDBacksfan, emilylovesthedbacks, Azreous, jonny-yuma, 4 Corners Fan, Wailord, pygalgia, hotclaws, TwinnerA, Zephon, kishi, notSince86, and venomfan.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim come to Chase Field this weekend for a 3-game series starting tomorrow night. Probable starters are listed as Weaver vs Buckner, Lackey vs Davis, and Palmer vs Scherzer.

Gameday Thread, #71: 6/23 vs Rangers

snakecharmer — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:07:11 -0000

Matt Harrison
LHP, 4-4, 5.43

Max Scherzer
RHP, 4-4, 3.58

It's convenient that Jim goes AWL (no, not a typo) right as I get back from the Power Soccer National Championships. So, this won't be a terribly good preview since I know very little of what's been going on these past 5 days! Everybody please be sure to chip in your thoughts in the thread.

Max Scherzer's on the hill for the Diamondbacks as they try to recover from a sweep at the hands of the Seattle Mariners. Two 12-run games against the Royals and then three consecutive days with 3 or fewer runs scored is, well, it's the very picture of how the team has performed all season long. Scherzer has won his last two starts to improve his record to 4-4 and lower his ERA. It's quite possible that 3 runs could get the win - as long as the bullpen holds up...

What do we know about Rangers' starter Matt Harrison? Well at first glance, he has the same record as and a higher ERA than Scherzer. He seems to only be able to go 5 innings per game (though he had two consecutive complete games in May) and allows plenty of baserunners, if Arizona can take advantage. Texas is riding a losing streak with poor offense as well, but they are still six games over .500 and one game over Anaheim to lead the AL West.

Texas has won 7 of the last 8 matchups against Arizona, but for both teams, this feels like a must-win game. Who will come out on top? Tune in to find out...

As a follow-up to dahlian's point about Miguel Montero's playing time, catcher Chris Snyder has been placed on the disabled list. Luke Carlin was called up, and Conor Jackson was moved to the 60-day DL. Chris Young was a last-minute scratch from the lineup, and might also be headed to the disabled list. Is DbacksSkins on the recap tonight, or would anybody else like to take a crack at it?

Lineup

Felipe Lopez - 2B
Stephen Drew - SS
Justin Upton - RF
Mark Reynolds - 1B
Gerardo Parra - CF
Miguel Montero - C
Eric Byrnes - LF
Ryan Roberts - 3B
Max Scherzer - P

SnakePit Fantasy Baseball, Week 11

snakecharmer — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:06:36 -0000

I haven't seen Jim online yet today so I thought I'd get this up - I think he's taking some days off of work to move, so while he is completely internetless, I am in charge. ;)

Blonde Streaks 4, Shoryukens 4
AZ SnakePit 4, Confederate Generals 6
GregSchulteOverdrive 3, The Fighting Amish 5
Balco's Boys 5, warlords 2
Captain Douchebag 2, 7-2 Offsuiters 8
Arizona Muugens 7, Wimboes Bamy Army 3
Kapsaicin Kids 6, Desert Dingleberries 4
Moving On Uptons 6, Baked 4

Standings, full details, etc. after the break.

Week 11 Results

Blonde Streaks 4, Shoryukens 4
Good series between these two this week, as both categories were split. Y Molina, Hudson and Lopez each had 5 runs for Blonde, and lead with 36 strikeouts (16 from Cole Hamels). Huston Street and David Aardsma each had 3 saves for Shor, who also took wins and WHIP (barely). RBI and SB were tied and 21 and 3, respectively.

AZ SnakePit 4, Confederate General 6
Lots of big numbers (some good, some bad) put up by both teams. Ryan Braun had 10 runs and 8 RBI for Confederate, who lead in Batting Average by 65 points! Clint Barmes and Alexei Ramirez each had 7 RBI to help SnakePit win that category. Both team's wins were low and the ERAs were over 4, thanks to bad outings by Carlos Marmol (for SnakePit) and Ramon Troncoso and Matt Capps (Confederate). Confederate's lower WHIP and slightly higher Ks helped them win for the week.

GregSchulteOverdrive 3, The Fighting Amish 5
Another see-saw matchup with both teams taking some of each category. Greg had 27 runs to 25, and Amish had 3 wins to 2. Both teams were tied in saves (3) and stolen bases (6). Bronson Arroyo and Dallas Braden combined for 15 Ks to help Greg win there, but Amish held on to ERA and WHIP (despite a horrendous ERA of 18.00 by Chad Qualls!) to win for the week.

Balco's Boys 5, warlords 2
Three categories here ended up tied - runs, wins and batting average (and that's hard to tie!). Balco dominated pitching, helped by 5 saves between Brian Wilson and George Sherrill, while warlords' pitching numbers were hurt by Jonathan Sanchez and Joel Hanrahan. war did win in home runs and stolen bases (both 7 to 5).

Captain Douchebag 2, 7-2 Offsuiters 8
7-2 dominated. Plain and simple. All numbers were pretty widely on their side, with Captain just barely eeking out the win for strikeouts (44 to 43) and saves (3 to 1). Wins was close, but Captain took it 3 to 2. Captain's pitching staff (Calero, Peña) seemed to implode this week, and the offense was too anemic to put up much of a fight.

Arizona Muugens 7, Wimboes Barmy Army 3
Seems like some good splits in this one. Wins and saves were only one point apart, and both went to Muugens. Wimboes took runs, batting average and ERA by a nice sized margin with a lot of help from Skip Schumaker (.458 / 9 R) and Brandon Inge (.381 / 6 RBI) and 0.00 ERAs from Papelbon and Rivera, but it wasn't enough to overcome Brian Roberts and Jayson Werth's 14 RBI and Burnett's and Davis's 16 Ks.

Kapsaicin Kids 6, Desert Dingleberries 4
More one- and two-point differences in this series helped Kaps to the win his week. They barely took stolen bases (6 to 4), wins (4 to 3) and saves (3 to 2) but had pretty wide offensive margins thanks to Victor Martinez, Derek Lee and B.J. Upton. They could've taken batting average, with Upton and Hunter Pence both hitting over .400, but Pedro Feliz hit .083 to knock that down and give that category to Desert. Desert had nice pitching from C.J. Wilson (0.00 ERA), John Danks (1.28 ERA / 0.71 WHIP) and Aaron Harang (10 Ks).

Moving On Uptons 6, Baked 4
A pretty lobsided matchup here, it seems. Uptons won many of the offense stats by a wide margin and took ERA as well (Baked had 3 players with ERAs over 10!). Yet Baked dominated strikeouts 49 to 21, and their pitchers who happened to have low ERAs (Haren, Nick Blackburn) brought in some wins to help out. Baked also had good weeks from Justin Upton (.458) and Evan Longoria (.348) but the offense wasn't enough to win.

Rank	Team	W-L-T	Pct	GB	Last Week	Waiver	Moves
1.	7-2 Offsuiters	64-39-7	.614	-	8-2-0	15	12
2.	Arizona Muugens	61-42-7	.586	3	7-3-0	6	7
3.	Balco's Boys	58-43-9	.568	5	5-2-3	12	5
4.	Moving on Uptons	57-47-6	.545	7.5	6-4-0	8	6
5.	Confederate Generals	56-51-3	.523	10	6-4-0	16	25
6.	The Fighting Amish	52-48-10	.518	10.5	5-3-2	3	14
7.	Shoryukens!	53-52-5	.505	12	4-4-2	9	20
8.	warlords	49-50-11	.495	13	2-5-3	14	2
9.	Blonde Streaks	48-50-12	.491	13.5	4-4-2	1	6
10.	GregSchulteOverdrive	47-50-13	.486	14	3-5-2	10	9
11.	Wimboes Barmy Army	47-56-7	.459	17	3-7-0	2	8
12.	Kapsaicin Kids	48-57-5	.459	17	6-4-0	4	8
13.	AZ SnakePit	45-54-11	.459	17	4-6-0	7	6
14.	Baked	47-56-7	.459	17	4-6-0	13	12
15.	Captain Douchebag	46-60-4	.436	19.5	2-8-0	5	8
16.	Desert Dingleberries	40-63-7	.395	24	4-6-0	11	15

Week 12 Games

Blonde Streaks vs. Confederate Generals
AZ SnakePit vs. Kapsaicin Kids
GregSchulteOverdrive vs. Shoryukens!
Balco's Boys vs. The Fighting Amish
Captain Douchebag vs. warlords
Arizona Muugens vs. 7-2 Offsuiters
Wimboes Barmy Army vs. Baked
Moving on Uptons vs. Desert Dingleberries

Question about your AAA team

snakecharmer — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:16:35 -0000

Hey Pirates fans.... I am a visiting Diamondback fan and I have a quick question about your AAA team, the Indianapolis Indians. I don't know if you'll know it but I don't know where else to look. :)

I just happen to be going to Indy next week, and the team does have a game - but it's a night game, I have to be up early the next morning, I'm staying in Keystone Crossing, and it seems like it's about a half an hour drive. (Is there good public transportation by chance?) How is traffic on the 465 - does that half an hour turn into an hour at 6pm?

The other question I have is about accessibility. Really, the only reason I'm even considering going to the game (the night before I have soccer games of my own I need to rest up for) is because I just found out you have Jeff Salazar, and I LOVE him, he's such a sweet guy, and really I would just come to the game to meet him and say hi, catch a few innings of ball, before I've got to be back at our hotel probably by 9pm. But I'm looking at your stadium seating chart and I don't see any wheelchair seats near the front of the park within autograph-asking-distance... :(

So I turn to people who hopefully might be an expert in this area.... or if you're not, can you tell me who might be? ;) What do you know about the stadium's accessibility? How's traffic coming from where I'm staying? Any advice? Thanks!

Gameday Thread, #47: 5/27 vs. Padres

snakecharmer — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:39:33 -0000

Jake Peavy
RHP, 4-5, 3.48

Billy Buckner
RHP, 1-0, 6.35

Ok. Having blown one six-run lead already, and come within about six inches of seeing another implode on us this series, I think it would probably be best if we came right out of the gate playing dreadful baseball, fell behind early and saw Augie Ojeda pitching the last three innings. It would certainly be easier on my nerves, because if we have a six-run lead after seven innings again, I'm not sure my heart could stand it.

Of course, the chances of us having a six-run lead are slim to none: after a wobbly start to the season, Peavy is now beginning to roll, with a May ERA of 1.50, and 47 strikeouts in 36 innings. Opponents are batting .144 off him this month. And you wonder why we want to see him playing in the other league. That said, Chase Field does not agree with Peavy - his career ERA here is 5.78 in thirteen starts, and we already documented how San Diego pitchers' numbers are heavily skewed between playing at home and on the road. Peavy is no different: at home, he's been sub-three this year; on the road, a less-stellar 4.32.

On our end, we go with Billy Buckner, who astonished everyone with seven innings of one-run ball up in Oakland. That was certainly a starting performance, from someone whose relief performance left a lot to be desired. He was lucky - a BABIP of .182 is pretty unsustainable - but he kept the ball down, and (mostly) in the park. Obviously, he'll need to be on his best form tonight, but if he can give the D-backs a quality start, that would be more than we should be happy with, given he's a replacement for a spot starter.

Just a note on the bullpen. I see the Dodgers came into the ninth five runs up against the Rockies this afternoon, and ended up a single away from blowing it all. Every bullpen will have its bad day - you just hope that when they happen, they don't affect the outcome of the game. And, in the end result, they didn't last night., gut-wrenching though it was But if Buckner can go seven strong innings again, I don't think any of us would object! Azreous on the recap, so something interesting is almost assured...

Lineup

Parra - CF
Montero - C
Upton - RF
Drew - SS
Reynolds - 3B
Tracy - 1B
Byrnes - LF
Roberts - 2B
Buckner - P

Diamondbacks 2, Athletics 1 - 'CY'a Later, Slump!

snakecharmer — Sat, 23 May 2009 06:05:10 -0000

More photos » by Jeff Chiu - AP

Chris Young is all smiles after hitting his first home run in a over month. His solo shot in the 5th inning gave the Diamondbacks the lead and the win.

Browse more photos »

The Diamondbacks play the final leg of this road trip in my own backyard, starting Inter-league Play here in Oakland, California. They've done really well so far this trip, going 4-2 in games in the very warm and humid environments of Atlanta and Miami. How would they do in the cold air of the Oakland Coliseum? Would the team struggle after getting in at 3am the night before? And would my winning streak of attending games continue? Keep reading to find out...

Tonight's matchup featured Arizona's recent callup and "#6" starter, Billy Buckner, against Oakland's #2 starter, Trevor Cahill. Buckner's ERA coming into tonight's game was 15.75, courtesy of a horrible relief appearance early in the season against L.A. when he gave up 5 runs in two-thirds of an inning. Tonight was Buckner's first start since late 2007 with Kansas City. Cahill is very much a rookie - his first career game was Oakland's second of the season. He has been decent, but not consistent, and in his last start in Detroit, Cahill gave up 7 runs and couldn't get out of the 3rd inning. The Diamondbacks have had a tendency to make struggling pitchers look like Cy Young candidates, and according to my friend, the A's have had trouble when facing new pitchers.

Despite the ominous look at the start based on numbers and history, this game ended up being a pitcher's duel! Both pitchers, who each pitched 7.1 innings with a similar pitch count, had pretty good stuff tonight - from where I was sitting, sliders and sinkers kept the hitters off guard. (Buckner said after the game that he didn't have his curve ball - but he didn't seem to miss it.) Both starters were good at getting around base runners, either with double play balls or deep fly ball outs. The cold marine layer (it was 50 degrees and breezy at first pitch) kept most of those fly balls from being anywhere near dangerous. Matt Holliday's solo home run in the 2nd inning and Chris Young's home run in the 5th inning (his first home run in a month!) were the crux of each team's offense. Aside from that, both teams had only two base runners reach 2nd base. Augie Ojeda stole second and scored the Diamondbacks' first run in the 3rd inning, and Justin Upton was stranded on third base in the 9th. For the A's, Kurt Suzuki and Nomar Garciaparra reached second in the 8th and 9th innings respectively, and neither scored. Jon Rauch came in for the save in place of Chad Qualls and pitched himself out of his own mess (two on with two out) to lock down a 2-1 win for the Diamondbacks.

Other Diamondbacks highlights in an otherwise quiet game: Billy Buckner also had to pitch around two D'back errors, and did so very adeptly. He essentially gave the tired bullpen a night off, something greatly appreciated by his manager, A.J. Hinch. His pitches seemed controlled and he pitched at a very fast pace. (At 9:00, this game was in the 8th inning.) Gerardo Parra had another RBI, giving him as many RBI as he has games played. For not being a natural left fielder, Parra played pretty well in the field tonight, as did Ojeda at 3rd base. He pulled a Mark at one point, bare-handing a slow roller and launching it to Reynolds at first base. With his first home run in a month and a single later on, Chris Young ended the night 2 for 3 - let's hope this is a start of good things to come for him! And most importantly, the win tonight guarantees the Diamondbacks a winning road trip (a record of 5-2 so far), with things looking in our favor the rest of the weekend. Dan Haren faces off against former Diamondback Edgar Gonzalez tomorrow night, and Jon Garland will start against Josh Outman (who?) on Sunday.

Master of his Domain: Billy Buckner, +37.9%
Honorable Mention: Chris Young, +14.3%
God-Emperor of Suck: Stephen Drew, -9.5%

Quite a quiet gameday thread tonight! Eh, it was a pretty boring game to be at too actually. (Sorry if the recap's a little boring too!) Only 22 people made 311 posts - with Muu (75) and hotclaws (56) taking the top two spots tonight. Present were kishi, sayheyupton, Smoggie, soco, Muu, luckycc, Jim McLennan, paqs, venomfan, Wimb, SeanMillerSavior, TwinnerA, Fiona, 4 Corners Fan, hotclaws, Scrbl, katers, unnamedDBacksfan, jazzbo13, mrssoco, snakecharmer and sergey606.

If interested, a few of my photos from the game are behind the jump.

Billy Buckner warms up before the game.

Zavada and Vasquez warm up in the 8th inning. Both were ready well before Hinch needed them - very good bullpen management tonight.

Look, base runners!! A rarity in this game. Upton at 3rd, Reynolds at 1st. I swear, at one point even Chris Young was on 1st base, but he was erased on a double play before I could take a picture.

Jon Rauch warms up to close it out. This man is scary-tall in person.

Victory!! The only shot I managed to get before people were in my way.

What's Past Is Prologue: A Comparison of the 2004 and 2009 Arizona Diamondbacks

snakecharmer — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:54:29 -0000

More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

This pretty much sums up the Diamondbacks year so far - downtrodden, hopeless, and oft-defeated.

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We've all been thinking it the past week - "Is this going to be another 111-loss season?" and "We've weathered 2004, can we weather this?" So I decided to take a look and see how similar the years are going.

As of May 13th, the 2009 Diamondbacks had played one more game than the 2004 squad.

	2004 Team	2009 Team
Record	14-20	13-22
Rank	5th	5th
Games Back	8.5 (LAD, 21-11)	10 (LAD, 23-12)
Worse Teams	Expos (10-25)	Nationals (11-21)
Runs Scored	177	129
Runs Allowed	194	168
Avg. Run Diff.	-1	-1

It's an improvement that Runs Allowed is 26 points lower this year, but it's certainly not an improvement that Runs Scored is nearly double that, 49 points lower. By this time, the 2004 Diamondbacks had faced a 5-game losing streak and two 4-game losing streaks, while only having one 3-game winning streak. This year, the losing streaks have only reached 3 games, but that's happened four times (including the one we're at the end of right now, so it could get worse). The 2009 Diamondbacks seem more able to bounce back from a loss, but practically unable to get on any winning streak at all - they've only won back-to-back games twice all season.

(I promise, the rest of this story is NOT all numbers!)

Numbers aside, let's take a look at how similar these two teams are in terms of personnel. Before the 2004 season, we traded Curt Schilling to Boston for Casey Fossum and Brandon Lyon, Craig Counsell, Junior Spivey, and four others to Milwaukee for Richie Sexson, and John Patterson to Montreal for Randy Choate. We let Raul Mondesi and Miguel Batista walk as free agents, and we also signed Roberto Alomar Jr. before the season began. This year's off-season trades were minimal, but we lost Randy Johnson, Orlando Hudson, Adam Dunn, David Eckstein, and Brandon Lyon all to free agency. Additions so far in 2009 have been Felipe Lopez, Scott Schoeneweis, Jon Garland, and Tom Gordon (the last of whom has only spent two days not on the disabled list - similar to what Sexson did in 2004). I'm inclined to think that this season, the changes are working out much more in our favor (or at least equal) than in 2004, when we got the short end of the stick on most of those trades and signings. The front office is taking less of a chance with unknown, borderline players like Choate and Fossum, instead signing guys that are more proven like Lopez and Garland, and trusting the guys that we already have to fill in the blanks.

When I was thinking of comparable injuries and minor league call-ups to the 2009 season so far, it turns out I was originally remembering 2003 - losing Johnson, Schilling, Counsell, Kim, and a whole bunch of others to the disabled list at some point, and bringing up the host of "Baby Backs" from Double- and Triple-A. In 2004, the main injuries at this point were Richie Sexson, Matt Mantei, Roberto Alomar Jr. and Oscar Villarreal, with Gonzo the other big name player to join him later in the season. Notable 2004 callups included Casey Daigle, Chad Tracy, Scott Hairston, Brian Bruney, Luis Terrero and (later) Chris Snyder. The 2004 team, instead of calling up players from a rather depleted system, depended on the previous year's rookies and young'uns (Hammock, Webb, Kata, Cintron) to step it up and fill in for the injured veterans and other players let go.

The mentality has been similar in 2009. The biggest injury has been Brandon Webb, the impact of which seems to be akin to losing Sexson in terms of morale and ability to help the team win. Tom Gordon's injury certainly doesn't help solidify the bullpen like he was brought in to do, Petit's struggles haven't been good enough for the rotation, and losing Clark, Drew and Jackson are all painful to the offense. Recently we started to bring up the new round of Baby Backs - Whitesell, Vasquez, Augenstein and Parra last night from Double-A Mobile, I'm sure Zavada will get another chance - but we are still relying on the existing young players, such as Upton, Reynolds, Young, Rosales, and Scherzer to bring this team around.

But in the end, the real question is - why? Why is this team struggling so badly? We all sense that this year feels as bad as 2004, but is it really? Does this team have the potential to turn it around?

In 2004, the major problem was pitching. Only three players ended the season with an ERA below 4.00 - Johnson, Webb, and Aquino. (I'm choosing not to count Jeff Fassero's scoreless inning, nor will I include Wilson's.) Randy Johnson was the only pitcher with double-digit wins (16) and three players (including Johnson) had double-digit losses. Relievers accounted for at least 28 of the team's 111 losses (more likely close to 35), and interestingly I can't find the numbers on Blown Saves but I remember it being quite high. The average ERA in 2004 was 5.66, with home runs and walks being a major problem. (Webb lead the league with 119 walks!) The young defense certainly didn't help - 139 errors total (0.86 per game), four players had more than 10, and Chad Tracy alone had 26.

Thus far in 2009, relief pitchers have only accrued 4 losses (about half of the percentage of 2004's). Granted, the average ERA is much higher, but that's because Tom Gordon and Bobby Korecky's numbers are skewing it. This year's squad has nine pitchers with an ERA under 5.00, and seven of them are under 4.00. Despite recent poor play all around, the errors this year (25 in 35 games, 0.71 per game) are not what has doomed this team. No, the problem this year is not with pitching, it's hitting. Sorting the batting average descending, the Top 10 averages range from 0.348 (Roberts) to 0.211 (Haren). Haren and Scherzer both have better BAs than Byrnes, Tracy, Drew, Jackson and Young! 2004's Top 10 hitters ranged from 0.310 to 0.250. (Did anybody remember that Stephen Randolph was 5 for 12?) Sure, those numbers weren't great either, but most players were in the mid-200s; thus far this season, most hitters are in the low-200s to high-100s. And the players that are struggling this season are not first- and second-year players from 2004. The players having a rough start this year have 3 to 9 years in the major leagues.

2004's roster had 13 players with less than a year of service, another 12 with two years. This 2009 team is more mature - sure, there are already eight rookies, but only four guys with two years under their belts. These players have been up in "the show" for years, they are better than their numbers suggest, and they have more experience to draw on to improve their play than did the 2004 team. The injuries this season aren't as bad, the overall play of the team is not as bad, and I feel this group of players has a better chance to make a comeback than the 2004 team.

It's also interesting to look even further back at the past. The Diamondbacks won the Western Division in 2002, struggled with injuries and rookies in 2003, and relied on those rookies in 2004 to pick up the slack. They couldn't. The 2007 Diamondbacks won the Western Division (and NLDS), struggled in 2008, and are relying on these young guys in 2009 to make up for their collapse late last year. Of course, both teams also fired their Manager (Brenly for Pedrique, Melvin for Hinch) to try to shake things up.

Can your 2009 Arizona Diamondbacks learn from the past and pull through their struggles to make the rest of the season bearable? Only time will tell.

Poll

Do you think the 2009 Diamondbacks will suffer the same fate as the 2004 Diamondbacks?

Yes, they will have at least 111 losses and have a fire sale mid-season

24 votes

Yes, they'll threaten to go over the century mark

54 votes

No, they'll improve and break even this year

55 votes

No way, they're storming back to take the NL West title

16 votes

149 votes | Poll has closed

Roster Moves: Korecky Demoted, Jackson to DL; Zavada, Drew added - Parra to follow?

snakecharmer — Tue, 12 May 2009 22:44:12 -0000

More photos » by Ed Andrieski - AP

Gerardo Parra shows off his home run trot during a spring training game in Tucson

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More roster moves were announced today: Clay Zavada has been called up in replace of Bobby Korecky, while Stephen Drew has been removed from the Disabled List after only two rehab games with the Reno Aces (he went 3 for 9 with a triple). Conor Jackson replaces him, having not been able to get over the flu in a reasonable amount of time.

Zavada Heads to Arizona

It's also being reported that Gerardo Parra has been promoted, but Nick Piecoro says that Parra's callup sounds like it'll be tomorrow, along with Augenstein (as previously announced). Nick makes a good point - with Drew back, the extra infielder won't be necessary, so it'll likely be Wilson. (I vote we keep him in the 'pen, anybody with me?)

[Updated 5/13] The corresponding roster moves to calling up Parra and Augenstine are to return Zavada to Double-A and designate Josh Wilson for assignment.

Analysis

These are some very aggressive moves by Byrnes, Hinch and the Diamondbacks organization, especially when you also take into account the promotion of Bryan Augenstein that accompanies them. I imagine we'll see paqs taking a look at all of the players concerned in details in this week's minor-league round-up, so I don't want to steal his thunder. But it does seem to suggest that the decision may have been made to turn this into a rebuilding year, accepting to a certain extent, that the current players are not capable of getting it done.

It also suggests that we're going to be rebuilding from within, with Parra perhaps being penciled in a long-term alternative to Young in CF, who has really struggled pretty much the entire season. Upton, it goes without saying, is a lock in left, and we'll be paying Eric Byrnes the big bucks this season and next, so might as well try and get some money from him [it seems, at the moment, he is by far the better alternative to Jackson out-OPSing him by 184 points]. It could be interesting, taking these moves into account, to try and speculate what our roster might look like next season. Webb, Haren, Scherzer, Augenstein and Parker as a 2010 rotation? If that's the plan, then we may be looking to dump Garland and Davis at the trade deadline.

Even if the players proves good enough to stick around in the majors going forward, the downside is much the same as we've seen with Upton. We're starting his service clock, so he'll hit free-agency - and, presumably, depart for the Yankees or whoever - that much sooner. Generally, to maximize their production for a team, you want to have your players up to, and maybe a year or two beyond, their peak production in their late 20's. Parra just turned 22 last Tuesday; Augenstein is 23 in July; Zavada is probably the only one arriving at the "normal" time, since he'll turn 25 next month, having taken a somewhat circuitous route to the majors and not pitched in 2007 at all.

As far as the 2009 season goes, it may well be a sign that it isn't our year. Nine games out already, with an offense which contains more holes than the collected works of Michael Bay. We may be less than a quarter of the way through the season, but these moves suggest the organization wants pull the collective plug on things, rather than struggling on, in pursuit of a cause that was perhaps lost along with Brandon Webb's arm.

A final note on Jackson, from Nick Piecoro's blog. Get well soon, Conor:

Not sure what’s going on with Jackson. When I got to the ballpark on Saturday, one of his teammates said he looked deathly ill, but I haven't been around the past couple of days. Apparently he’s been OK enough to pinch hit a couple of times in the past few games... I’m told that he is “very sick,” and Hinch said that the club is going to run a “battery of tests, make sure that he’s fine... Our medical team, we're baffled a little bit by this," Hinch said. "It's been a long time and he's never really gotten better. He's shown signs of coming out of it and then it kind of relapse."

SB Nation User Blog: snakecharmer

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What's Past Is Prologue: A Comparison of the 2004 and 2009 Arizona Diamondbacks

Do you think the 2009 Diamondbacks will suffer the same fate as the 2004 Diamondbacks?

Yes, they will have at least 111 losses and have a fire sale mid-season

Yes, they'll threaten to go over the century mark

No, they'll improve and break even this year

No way, they're storming back to take the NL West title

Roster Moves: Korecky Demoted, Jackson to DL; Zavada, Drew added - Parra to follow?

Matt Harrison
LHP, 4-4, 5.43

Max Scherzer
RHP, 4-4, 3.58

Jake Peavy
RHP, 4-5, 3.48

Billy Buckner
RHP, 1-0, 6.35