Arizona Diamondbacks
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Randy still mows ‘em down, still wows the fansMay 21st, 2008
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Whenever you’re heading out to the park, there are always questions that come up.
“Where are we sitting?”
“How much is a beer in here?”
“Wanna try to sneak down to a box?”
“They want how much for a beer?!?”
But, ultimately, there’s always one question that’s much more important. Someone always asks it, and for good reason.
“Who’s pitching tonight?”
It’s the single most exciting variable before any game. Who’s pitching. And the answer can severely swing your interest in the game. If it’s a long reliever filling in due to injury, the intrigue severely swings down, whereas a veteran, an exciting rookie or a future Hall of Famer will always lead to greater interest and, often, more butts in the seats.
I always like to know who’s pitching, and I’ve made decisions on whether or not to head out to the park based on who will take the hill, on days when I’ve been on the fence about driving out, paying for parking and buying a ticket.
Take last season’s interleague match-up against the Boston Red Sox. Saturday featured a pitching duel of Julian Tavarez against the Diamondbacks’ Micah Owings. Sunday’s game? Randy Johnson vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka. On the surface, which game sounds more interesting to you? Me, I’m a sucker for the marquee match-up.
Which brings us to a discussion of the Big Unit and his place in baseball, its history and this current version of the D-backs.
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Seriously, what’s wrong with Eric Byrnes?May 17th, 2008
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So, after hiccups against the Mets and Cubs, the Diamonbacks are once again in cruise control. Brandon Webb can’t be beat, Dan Haren looks as good as promised, and the kids — especially Chris Young, Stephen Drew, Justin Upton, Conor Jackson, Micah Owings and Matt Scherzer — are playing great, solid ball, and look to be forming the core of a perrenial contender.
But unless you live in the Grand Canyon state or have this man on your fantasy team, you might have noticed that Eric Byrnes is having a tough time of it. Actually, he’s been terrible. He’s been so bad, that it’s been hard to fathom.
And the proof is in the pudding. The numbers aren’t just ugly, they’re horrifying. Through 38 games and 157 at bats: a batting average of .223. 4 home runs. 17 RBI, and a measly .665 OPS.
It has been well documented that Byrnes started off slowly. But in the second and third weeks of the season, his production picked up, and it looked like he was returning to the form that made him All-Star snub number 1 last year. In fact, he was up to a .267 average with a .776 OPS. Not great, but certainly better than where he had been.
But those days are long gone. In the month of May, that average is just .102. His OPS is .224, a figure so low it’s absurd. He hadn’t driven in a single run until last night against Detroit, he’s only hit safely five times, and he’s started to become a near sure thing to ground into a double play when all he needs to do is put the ball over the shortstop’s head. Or walk. Or even strike out.
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Congrats, D-Backs. You have your first challenge.May 5th, 2008
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Sunday’s was another marquee pitching match-up for the Diamondbacks. But this one didn’t pan out in their favor.
And it wasn’t through any fault of Dan Haren. He matched Mets ace Johan Santana on Sunday, and left the game down 2-1 on a mere 3 hits. That became 2-2 in the seventh, but in the last two innings, the wheels fell off for Arizona.
First, after capitalizing on a throwing error to first, Chris Burke turned a bunt into two bases. But when he tried to stretch it to three, Ryan Church nailed him at third to take the runner out of scoring position and off the basepaths.
Then, in the ninth, with the typically steady Chad Qualls on the mound, Conor Jackson committed a throwing error that allowed Mets centefielder Carlos Beltran to score the go-ahead run. Qualls gave up three hits in the inning, three runs, and in the process surrendered his first unearned run of the season.
And the Mets left the desert with a 2-1 series lead, the Diamondbacks first real hiccup of the season.
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In an early Cy showdown, Webb has the edgeApril 28th, 2008
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If you’re not a fan of Jake Peavy and Brandon Webb locked in pitching duels, well, you might want to take the next few years of baseball off. Try the Premier League, maybe catch up on all the reading you’ve been putting off since Luis Gonzalez dribbled that blooper past Mariano Rivera. Read more
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Offensively challenged? Not these guysApril 17th, 2008
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Last season, the Diamondbacks scored 712 runs, only to give up 732.
If you’re an avid reader of baseball writers (and if you’ve tuned in here, you probably are), that fact was plastered all over every prediction, overview and wrap-up of the 2007 team. Solid defensively, a decent pitching staff, and next to no punch in the lineup. They were the poster boys of parity last season. Read more
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Diamondbacks, MLB do right by JackieApril 16th, 2008
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Last year was my first in the state of Arizona, and as part of my getting acclimated to my new surroundings, I made it a point to take in everything the Arizona Diamondbacks were about. As luck would have it, my first game was a Sunday afternoon match-up with the Colorado Rockies on April 15.
A few days before that, it was announced that April 15 would be a celebration of Jackie Robinson and the 60th anniversary of his breaking the color barrier. The Reds’ Ken Griffey Jr. petitioned baseball for the privilege of wearing Jackie’s no. 42, and soon the idea snowballed, with dozens of players asking for the right to wear Jackie’s number on their back, putting their own name and number in the laundry room for a day.
The experiment was a success, and on Tuesday, five Diamondbacks chose to again wear the only number retired by all of baseball, and the first such number to be honored by any North American professional league. Orlando Hudson, Justin Upton, Chris Young, Eric Byrnes and first base coach Lee Tinsley all donned the 42 on their Sedona red jerseys against the Giants yesterday. All but Upton (who was in the minors at the time) did the same last April 15. Byrnes had a special affinity for 42. Byrnes was one of the only caucasian players in baseball to wear the number last season (excluding players whose teams chose to collectively wear 42). His affection for Robinson and his plight was illustrated by the fact that Byrnes wrote his senior thesis on the man during his days at UCLA.
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Lyon or Pena? The Diamondbacks face their first real controversy of 2008April 4th, 2008
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Well, this didn’t take long.
Only two games into this 2008 season, Diamondbacks fans are questioning the logic of plugging Brandon Lyon in the closer’s role ahead of young gun Tony Pena. Both excelled in setting up Jose Valverde last season, but with Papa Grande shipped off to Houston, one of the two had to step up.
Lyon had the benefit of past experience in the role, serving as Boston’s closer in the first half of 2003 and again filling in for an injured Valverde with Arizona in years past. But Pena had been electric in moments last year, showing the ability to blow the ball past hitters in tight situations. He posted 6.64 strikeouts per nine innings in 85.1 innings of work, while Lyon, who’s more of a contact pitcher, mustered only 4.86 K’s per 9.
Pena seemed to be better suited to be the intimidating, nasty closer in the mold of Jonathan Papelbon and Francisco Rodriguez, but manager Bob Melvin went with experience. And after game two, the Cincinnati Reds’ Edwin Encarnacion took Lyon deep to the tune of a three-run home run, a blown save, and a closer controversy. Read more
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Lyon or Pena? The DBacks’ face their first real controversy of 2008April 4th, 2008
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Well, this didn’t take long.
Only two games into this 2008 season, Diamondbacks fans are questioning the logic of plugging Brandon Lyon in the closer’s role ahead of young gun Tony Pena. Both excelled in setting up Jose Valverde last season, but with Papa Grande shipped off to Houston, one of the two had to step up.
Lyon had the benefit of past experience in the role, serving as Boston’s closer in the first half of 2003 and again filling in for an injured Valverde with Arizona in years past. But Pena had been electric in moments last year, showing the ability to blow the ball past hitters in tight situations. He posted 6.64 strikeouts per nine innings in 85.1 innings of work, while Lyon, who’s more of a contact pitcher, mustered only 4.86 K’s per 9.
Pena seemed to be better suited to be the intimidating, nasty closer in the mold of Jonathan Papelbon and Francisco Rodriguez, but manager Bob Melvin went with experience. And after game two, the Cincinnati Reds’ Edwin Encarnacion took Lyon deep to the tune of a three-run home run, a blown save, and a closer controversy.
So, the question is: How much longer will Melvin stick with Lyon? And should he have gone with Pena to begin with?
First, I don’t think Melvin will hesitate to switch his two relievers, but he’s not a reactionary hothead, either. If Melvin starts calling on Pena to get the final three outs this week, I’ll be pretty surprised. But if Lyon stumbles, he’ll feel very comfortable making the call to Pena in two or three weeks, and a move like that is perfectly in the Melvin mold.
And the reasons to start the season with Lyon fit with Melvin’s style, as well. He’s a player’s manager, and what that really means is he knows how to handle personalities. If Melvin had come out with Pena out of the gate and later been forced to make a similar switch, he could have stunted the growth and confidence of his young star hurler. But make the switch the other way? Maybe Lyon’s pride would sting a bit, but he’s a veteran who’s filled several roles on a few different teams. He, in theory, could bounce back from the demotion much more easily than Pena.
So, with the youngest team in the majors, Melvin deferred to his veteran, and with that comes the responsibility to settle back into the eighth-inning role, or perhaps the seventh — don’t forget, Arizona acquired the very capable relief workhorse Chad Qualls from Houston in the Valverde deal — should he not deliver in the ninth.
No doubt, Lyon was chosen with a backup plan in mind. So, for that reason, fans shouldn’t get too riled up over Lyon in the ninth — yet. But if he’s still struggling as closer and it’s May, they’ll have every right to start calling out Melvin at Chase Field.
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Opening Day Lives OnMarch 31st, 2008
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My opening day routine has changed a little over the years. When I was little, it remained the same for a long, long time — TV turned to WSBK-38, Red Sox hat on my head, my Mike Greenwell t-shirt on, sitting alone on the couch, baseball glove in hand, baseball nestled in the glove, and I wasn’t likely to move for the next three hours. Growing up in New England, there wasn’t any other way I could imagine spending such a day.
The Sox usually opened up on the West coast, and still do, so the game would usually start around 4 p.m., perfect for a kid who stepped off the bus at 3:30. Then, it would be time to catch them take on the A’s, Angels, Mariners or whoever it was that particular year. The baseball cards would be out on the coffee table in front of me, a notebook would be nearby to jot down what number the new Sox were wearing (“Jack Clark, 25, check. Danny Darwin, 44, check.”) After that, it would be dinner time, and then the rest of the week’s games would be moved to NESN, a channel I couldn’t watch until they moved it into a more affordable cable package years later.