http://www.sportsnipe.com Arizona Diamondbacks, Team News, Updates, and Stats from all sports sources, updated continually. http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1040615/diamondbacks-acquire-p-heilman.html The Arizona Diamondbacks added a right-handed pitcher to their roster Thursday, picking up Aaron Heilman from the Chicago Cubs. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1040614/dbacks-acquire-aaron-heilman.html According to MLBtraderumors and SI.com, the Diamondbacks have acquired Aaron Heilman. Thanks to emilylovesthedbacks for spotting this on twitter, more info to come.  [Updated] The deal sees the Cubs getting a pair of prospects, in left-handed reliever Scott Maine and infielder Ryne White. Said Josh Byrnes, "Aaron has been a successful, durable reliever who will add experience and stability to our bullpen." The right-hander is 31, and had a 4.11 ERA in 72.1 innings for the Cubs in 2009. (Update) Credit also goes to Counsellmember, who also mentioned this in the Lincecum Cy Young post. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1040613/dbacks-acquire-aaron-heilman.html According to MLBtraderumors and SI.com, the Diamondbacks have acquired Aaron Heilman. Thanks to emilylovesthedbacks for spotting this on twitter, more info to come.  [Updated] The deal sees the Cubs getting a pair of prospects, in left-handed reliever Scott Maine and infielder Ryne White. Said Josh Byrnes, "Aaron has been a successful, durable reliever who will add experience and stability to our bullpen." The right-hander is 31, and had a 4.11 ERA in 72.1 innings for the Cubs in 2009. (Update) Credit also goes to Counsellmember, who also mentioned this in the Lincecum Cy Young post. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1039659/lincecum-edges-two-cardinals-to-repeat-as-cy-young-winner.html Lincecum edges two Cardinals to repeat as Cy Young Winner Lincecum becomes the first NL winner to repeat since Randy Johnson. Dan Haren receives one third-place vote. Interesting voting totals, I placed them in the comments. Even one of Lincecum's own reporters didn't vote for him in first. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1039064/giants-lincecum-wins-nl-cy-young.html Giants ace Tim Lincecum won the NL Cy Young Award on Thursday for the second consecutive season to become the first repeat winner since Randy Johnson, emerging from one of the tightest votes in the history of the honor. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1039063/vote-in-this-year-baseball-awards.html Vote in the This Year in Baseball Awards MLB has opened voting on the This Year in Baseball awards. hie ye over there and you can vote for Mark Reynolds as the Unsung Star of the Year, over the likes of Jayson "Questionable Facial Hair" Werth, who hardly seems unsung to me. And if you've got a few more spare moments, the Oddities category also has the D-Backs fan catching a foul ball without dropping his toddler. It's a great catch. So go vote! (Troy Tulowitzki hitting for the cycle is also up for Best Performance- I can only assume that the true nomination is for the scorekeeper at Coors Field....) Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1038272/moments-in-diamondbacks-history-randy-johnson-ks-20.html "This was a game to put in a time capsule and let people of the future watch it." -- Randy Johnson Cincinatti Arizona 1. Donnie Sadler, LF 1. Steve Finley, CF 2. Juan Castro, 1B 2. Jay Bell, 2B 3. Barry Larkin, SS 3. Luis Gonzalez, LF 4. Alex Ochoa, RF 4. Reggie Sanders, RF 5. Aaron Boone, 3B 5. Mark Grace, 1B 6. Ruben Rivera, CF 6. Damian Miller, C 7. Pokey Reese, 2B 7. Tony Womack, SS 8. Kelly Stinnett, C 8. Craig Counsell, 3B 9. Chris Reitsma, P. 9. Randy Johnson, P Full boxscore The MLB Network showed Randy Johnson's 20-strikeout game at the start of the month, part of a series of high-K outings. It provided a fascinating glimpse into a bygone era of Diamondbacks baseball Look at the bottom of that Diamondbacks line-up. Ouch. We forget that, outside of Luis Gonzalez, the 2001 Diamondbacks were not great hitters. Among the regulars (250+ PA), the only ones with an OPS+ better than 92 were Gonzo (174),  Sanders (117) and Grace (113) - this was a team driven by pitching, with an total ERA+ of 120. To put that into context, it's like every inning for Arizona that year was pitched by Jake Peavy, who has the same career ERA+. Of course and in particular, driven by Curt Schilling and Randy, who went 43-12. That number of wins by two team-mates hadn't been surpassed in the NL since Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry went 46-14 for the Giants in 1966 [and the AZ pair would beat that the following year, going 47-12!] While ageless wonder Counsell is the only AZ position player still actively playing, there's a couple of semi-familiar names appearing for the Reds too. Donnie Sadler was the leadoff hitter for Cincinnati - the commentators were very enthusiastic about him, saying he was a highly touted Red Sox prospect at one point, also praising his wheels and arm [we'd see startling proof ot the former in this game]. He flamed out, however, his final AB being for Arizona in 2007. Reds' catcher, Kelly Stinnett was also a regular with the Diamondbacks from 1998-2000, and then returned to Arizona in 2005 as a back-up to Chris Snyder. They mentioned that Castro was making his first start at first-base, outside of spring training, since 8th grade - even now, in his fifteen-year career, he has made just four there. Clearly, the aim was then, as now, to stack your line-up with as many right-handers as possible when facing Johnson, and hope the defense holds up. It didn't help much, with two strikeouts for the Reds in the first - though both came on fastballs, not the devastating slider Johnson was to unleash as the game went on. There was some early speculation by the commentators that Johnson was experiencing back pains earlier on. The opposing starter for the Reds was Chris Reitsma. He was last seen in the majors in 2007, but played in the 2008 Olympics for Canada. This was his first year in the majors - and it's worth noting he allowed one run in eight innings of work, keeping his team in the game. Admittedly, he did fan eighteen less batters than Johnson, which I'm thinking has got to be a record for K disparity between starters ever. But hang on: a rookie starter giving the Diamondbacks' hitter fits, after barely a month in the major-leagues? Our ace getting basically no run support? Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose... Two more strikeouts for Randy in the second inning, sandwiched around a brutal sawing-off of Boone's bat. A call from the play-by-play guy [curiously, they seemed to rotate a couple of guys in and out of that role, including Rod Allen] to "Stevie Gilbert" - presumably the stats guy - to find out how many K's Rivera had in his career against Johnson. Is this the same Steve Gilbert now covering the Diamondbacks for MLB.com? When Johnson fanned Stinnett in the third, that tied him with Bob Gibson for (then) 11th on the all-time list. The K of Reitsma which immediately followed, broke the tie. Said Thom Brennaman at the start of the fourth, "I'm not sure we've seen three more dominant innings." Well,, the fourth probably extended the streak, with Johnson striking out the side. Barry Larkin, the third victim, had a spectacularly bad swing on 2-1, letting the bat and it ending up somewhere behind the umpire. The bat also helicoptered away from him on strike three. I also didn't realize how long the AFLAC trivia question has endured: the one for this game was, "How many NL MVP awards were won in the 1970's by the Reds?" The answer is six. Gonzo wasted a chance in the bottom of the fourth: he tried to stretch a leadoff single down the left-field line into a double, but got gunned down by the Sadlerzooka . Meanwhile Johnson had fanned six in  a row, tying his own franchise record, until Aaron Boone singled with one out in the fifth, ending a streak of 13 consecutive batters retired by Johnson. Boone then stole second, and was running to third on the pitch - a mistake by Johnson on an 0-2 count to Rivera. The RBI single which resulted frustrated the Big Unit, who clearly muttered to himself the rest of the inning, though no more harm was done. The Diamondbacks did tie it up in the sixth and Johnson was involved, singling to lead things off. Though he was erased on a Finley fielder's choice, the upgraded speed on the basepaths might have been for the best, as our CF then went to third on a Bell single. Gonzo popped up with one out, swinging on a 3-0 pitch, but Sanders drove the run in with another hit. Enlivened by this, Johnson then struck our the next seven batters faced, setting the franchise record which he'd tied earlier: it took him 33 pitches, 25 of which were strikes. In the middle of the streak the commentators started to wonder "What's going to happen with the Circle K-meter?" as it was only designed to handle sixteen K's. Impromptu banners proved the immediate solution - though between then and the end of 2002, it would overflow on four more occasions - three Big Unit starts, and one by Schilling. We haven't come close to challenging the K-meter since - the high-water mark for the Diamondbacks' pitchers at Chase over the past five seasons is only fourteen strikeouts. In the eighth inning, the crowd seemed to realize what they were watching, with a 'Ran-dy, Ran-dy' chant going in the stands. However, It was only starting the ninth that Brennaman mentioned the record. After RJ struck out JCastro to end the inning, his 20th K, Johnson thrust his fist towards the sky, and yelled as he left the mound, a rare display of emotion. Of the strikeouts, eighteen were swinging, almost every one on pitches out of the zone. Zero walks. Yet he still ended with a no-decision: his Game Score of 97 remains the highest without the starter getting a W, since Nolan Ryan pitched ten shutout innings, and fanned 15 in August 1990, his Rangers eventually winning in 13. Offensively, the Diamondbacks didn't do much. In the bottom of the eighth, Arizona had a chance, with Bell's two-out ground-rule double into the pool area. Gonzo was intentionally walked, and a wild pitch moved both runners up. There was some discussion of whether to pinch-hit for Sanders, likely with David Dellucci, but Reggie was left and flew out to center. One also wonders whether Johnson could have gone out there: he'd thrown 124 pitches, but in the seven starts that season, Johnson had averaged 120 pitches per start - his very next outing, he threw 145, perhaps making a point of some kind. The issue was magnified because we had also played extra-innings the night before - the decision to lift Randy looked flaky, as Byung-Hyun Kim and Bret Prinz combined to walk the bases loaded in the tenth, before Prinz ended things. In the 11th, it looked like even more like the game was over. Two more walks and an error by pitcher Russ Springer on a bunt loaded the bases - for the second consecutive inning, without a Reds hit. A K gave us some hope, but Cincinnati scored two runs on a sacrifice fly, with Sadler tagging up and scoring all the way from second on a ball hit to the wall in deep left-center. Fortunately, Reds closer Danny Graves, coming off 1.2 innings the night before, couldn't get it done - back-to-back singles by Bell + Gonzalez led things off, and a failed Sanders bunt later, Mark Grace doubled both men home. Two walks - one intentional - loaded the bases, and Graves then faced the last man available off the Diamondbacks' bench. Matt Williams. He worked the count full, hen ripped one down the left-field line, foul by inches. However, the next pitch from Graves was down and away, a bases-loaded walkoff walk, something which has only happened for us five other times in franchise history [most recently on September 9th this year, when current 3B Mark Reynolds walked his way to victory against the Dodgers]. [Click to enlarge, at fangraphs.com]Master of his domain: Johnson, +55.9%Honorable mentions: Grace, +33.7%; Williams, +33.6%; Bell, +24.0%; Prinz, +12.0%, Swindell, +10.7%God-emperor of suck: Russ Springer, -33.2%Dishonorable mentions: Finley,-18.9%; Colbrunn, -13.7%; Sanders, -13.3%; Miller, -11.0% Post-game quotes: "They told us to lay off his slider and hit his fastball, but, man, you couldn't tell the difference until it was on top of you, and then it was too late, He was throwing 97 mph fastballs and 88 mph sliders and all you could do was say, 'Oh, God.'" -- Reds outfielder Alex Ochoa "I feel blessed to have seen this twice. When a guy is pitching like that, you put your glove on top of your head because you are not going to need it." -- Mark Grace, who was also playing first-base in the game where Kerry Wood struck out 20 batters. "It was ridiculous. You know, he throws that batting-practice fastball 92 or 93, and there were a lot of times tonight I thought he was throwing his fastball that speed, and it was 98. It was so easy, with no effort, on any of his pitches, sliders, everything." -- Steve Finley "I was asked if I wanted to go out there and saw no point in going out there for the 10th inning, I surely could have went out there and done it, but what was the point in going out there and throwing 10 innings? I really didn't see it." -- Randy Johnson I really enjoyed watching the game, and it was fun to see the likes of Kim, Bell [who went 3-for-5 and saw 31 pitches!] and Grace [supremely clutch in the 11th]. However, it was Johnson's night and a great reminder of exactly how dominating the Big Unit was at his peak - he had more strikeouts (372) that seasonthan Reitsma had in his entire eight-year career. I certainly hope to see more Diamondbacks' coverage on the MLB Network - I can think of several other contests which would certainly deserve repeating on the channel. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1032167/tracy-scioscia-named-best-mlb-managers.html Jim Tracy of Colorado won the NL Manager of the Year award on Wednesday, while Mike Scioscia of the Los Angeles Angels was selected in the AL. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1026799/healthy-jackson-eases-byrnes-mind-yahoo-sports.html A trade for Lyle Overbay fell through, so Arizona's GM was glad that Conor Jackson said valley fever is behind him. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1026179/2009-draftee-report-card-part-one-corner-infielders.html     The Diamondbacks entered the 2009 draft with 4 extra draft picks in the first round and the 1/2 sandwich round, and came out of the draft with 37 out of 55 picks signed. Keith Law ranked the Dbacks as having the best draft in 2009, and other reviews of the Diamondbacks' draft have been positive as well. With so many quality players signed, this draft certainly has the potential to be the most productive draft the Diamondbacks have had in their short history, and the team had a nice balance of high-upside high school talent and safer college picks at each stage of the draft. In this series of articles, we're going to take a look at each signed draftee's debut season, and see how they performed. If a scouting report on a player is available, we'll also take a look at that. There will be five parts of the '09 draftee piece, grouping the players by position each week, with a sixth week to take a quick overview of the system. This week we'll start off with the power bats of the corner infielders. Next week we'll feature the middle infielders, then lump the outfielders and catchers together in week three (due to the relatively small number of players picked at each spot). Finally, we'll spend two more weeks looking at the whopping 19 pitchers the organization selected and subsequently signed. Then, when we're all done with the five weeks of '09 additions, both of us will offer our respective 2010 amateur opinion Diamondbacks top prospect lists.  The grades we used in this article are relative to the league average statistics and the average age of the players in the league that the player was in. In addition, each player's draft position and personal strengths and weaknesses are taken into account (i.e. how they were supposed to do). It's best to remember that the draft is generally a crap-shoot - you can never know which guys will make it and which won't. Some players' careers may be lost to injuries, others just may never be able to make the adjustments to the more advanced levels of hitting or pitching. If two or three players out of a draft become solid major leaguers, the draft is generally thought a success. It's not that uncommon for a team to have a draft where none of the players drafted have any significant impact on the major league club (just ask Pittsburgh). It happens. It's why the draft is 50 rounds long and teams have 25 players on their big-league rosters. If one major league player out of this draft became an all-star and a handful of them became regular big-league players, the organization got a good haul. So when you see these grades, imagine that they're in a perfect world, where there's no injuries, and players don't regress. These are absolute best-case scenarios, because as much as we'd like to, we can't predict the future.For this, the first week of this five-part extravaganza, we review the corner infielders. Third base has traditionally been a position of strength for the Diamondbacks, featuring names like Matt Williams and a healthy Chad Tracy from years past, and even today with the presence of probably the team's most-loved player, Mark Reynolds. However, with Reynolds' remarkable production comes the possibility that, despite his status of fan-favorite, he will be a free-agent in 2014. If we don't give him that extension and he signs elsewhere for what would be an assuredly absurd amount of money, we would have a gaping hole in our lineup at third base. So the front office decided to use the very first pick of our draft, and two subsequent picks, to take high-upside high-school bats who play third base, including Bobby Borchering, who was considered the best high-school bat in the draft. If just one of these kids pans out, we could be in a position to be able to fill in that gap that Reynolds could leave, just as he becomes a free agent. Or, if in a couple years it doesn't appear as if any of the kids will be able to fill in for Reynolds, we can try to negotiate an extension until someone steps up to fill the gap.First-base, however, has historically been a different story for the D-Backs. We got a World Series, a couple of great high-moxie years, and an color analyst/future manager out of Mark Grace, but otherwise have been forced to suffer through the (epic) frustrations of the epically-disappointing Travis Lee, the epically-roided-up [allegedly: SB Nation lawyers] Erubiel Durazo (look at his career stats and decline following the trade to Oakland; it's a safe assumption), the epically-moody Shea Hillenbrand, the epically-expensive Richie Sexson, the epically-old Shawn Green, the epically-older Tony Clark, the epically-injured Chad Tracy, and the epically-horrible Josh Whitesell. And with Conor Jackson now appearing to be a better fit for the outfield (it's still odd to think about this considering he had to go to Bob Melvin and ask to be put there since the team needed an outfielder), we're left with a raw and unproven Brandon Allen to man first-base for the foreseeable future. However, if Allen flops, we're left scrambling for expensive free-agent stop-gap solutions. Our upper-level minor-league first-baseman options are the aforementioned Whitesell, who spent most of last year, and likely will spend this year, banished in AAA (or off the roster altogether), Sean Coughlin, who put together a good season in Mobile last year, but is as old as Allen, and Bryan Byrne, who is both worse and older than Coughlin. So, to counteract this, the organization took some polished college bats who, although limited to first base, have the offensive power to stick at the position and climb quickly through the minors. Round 1, Pick 16 - Bobby Borchering Born: October 25, 1990 in Alva, Florida School: Bishop Verot HS Height: 6'4'' Weight: 200 Position: Third Base Bats: Switch Throws: Right Rookie-level Missoula - ABs: 87 BA/OBP/SLG: .241/.290/.425 XBH: 8 2Bs/1 3B/2 HRs ISO: .184 K:BB: 27:5 SB:CS: 0:0 BABIP: .328 Errors: 5 Zephon: Borchering is a switch hitting third basemen that is often compared to Chipper Jones. Borchering's bat is going to have to carry him through the minors, and if he's going to stick at third, he's going to have to put in a lot of work on his defense. It's possible that  he may end up moving to the outfield or first base.  Borchering signed late, so we don't have a lot of at-bats to look at, but we can still try to make some kind of objective analysis. 87 at-bats is a pretty small sample size, so we can't put a lot of stock in this year's stats. While not the most impressive debut for a first round pick, you have to remember that Borchering was 18 during most of the season and just turned 19.  Another thing to take into consideration is that most draftees have to deal with adjusting from aluminum bats to wooden bats for the first time. This can greatly affect performance during their transition. If you compare Borchering's age against the average age of the Pioneer league (20 years old), you can give him a little more slack. We'll have to see how he does with a full season's worth of at bats. Borchering will most likely get assigned to South Bend and get the first stab at third, but it'll be interesting to see how the playing time breaks down. I've also heard rumors that he may get a look in left field next season. Grade: C- (short term: C-, Long term: B) IHSB:  The regular season numbers are worrisome, as a .290 OBP isn’t going to cut it from anybody who wants to be a top prospect and is playing in rookie-ball, regardless of your tools or age.  But the ISO of .184 that he’s got the power that drew scouts to love him and he really turned it on in the postseason, putting up some great numbers (.321 average, 2 HR, 10 RBI in 6 games) that offer some much-needed optimism.  With those playoff numbers, it’s hard to imagine Borchering starting next year anywhere but Mid-A South Bend (as one would hope that a prospect of Borchering's status would rise faster than his fellow Rookie-level teammates going to Low-A Yakima).  As expected from the position he was drafted, he’s a guy who is instantly a top-ten prospect, but unfortunately it’s not as if he instantly proved he was a man amongst boys as the organization had hoped for given the competition.  The low number of ABs doesn't make it devastating to his prospect ranking, but he didn't shoot himself up anybody's rankings either.  Grade: B- (Short-term: C+, Long-term: B) 1/2 Sandwich Round, Pick 35 - Matt Davidson  Born: August 26, 1990 in Yucaipa, California School: Yucaipa HS Height: 6'3'' Weight: 215 Position: Third Base/First Base Bats: Right Throws: Right Low-A Yakima - ABs: 270 BA/OBP/SLG: .241/.312/.319 XBH: 15 2Bs/2 HRs ISO: .078 K:BB: 75:21 SB:CS: 0:2 BABIP: .326 Errors: 13 Zephon: Going into the draft, Matthew Davidson was considered a solid, safe high school draftee with good skills across the board, but his best tool may be his potential to hit for serious power.  Davidson, like Borchering, is a third basemen with an excellent bat, but questionable to average defense. He's got a ton of power potential, however he does have some holes in his swing.  Nevertheless, he should end up being a plus bat. He's not really a fast baserunner, and stealing bases isn't part of his game, but he does have good instincts on the base paths, and he's not a bad baserunner. Davidson debut at first glance seems pretty underwhelming, although when compared to the league average stats for the Northwest league (264/342/380) it puts him just slightly below average. Once you compare Davidson's age of 18 against the league average of 21, it makes his year look a lot better. However, the 13 errors are troublesome, and may be a sign of a potential move to first base or the outfield if they continue. As I noted on Borchering, it's going to be interesting to see how the playing time breaks down between the three third basemen drafted this year. Borchering will probably get the first stab at third, so it leads to the question, where will Davidson play? Will he be moved to first, where we have Brandon Allen, Ryan Wheeler, and Paul Goldschmidt? Or will he moved to left field, where we have just as much of a positional jam? It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. Slightly below average stat line, discounted for age, along with a few too many errors give Davidson a slightly below average grade. Grade: C- (short term: D+, Long term: C)IHSB:   There's really not much to say about Davidson.  He's young (just turned 19, will be 19 for all of 2010 season) and just put together an absolutely craptastic season in Low-A (in a solid number of at-bats, mind you).  Yes, he was a high school kid significantly below the average league age at Yakima, but at the same time, he was a 1/2 sandwich-round pick.  These are guys that are supposed to be steadily climbing through the system, taking about a year for each A-ball stop, and a year or two each for AA and AAA, not guys about to repeat Low-A ball.  The fact that Davidson already has gotten caught up in the system is absolutely concerning, and if he wants to be a top prospect, he needs to spend the first month of next season treating Low-A like it's the World Series and he's Chase Utley.  This is especially true since it looks like his defense at third is unsalvagable based on the errors this year, so his bat will absolutely need to carry him through the system since he's going to be stuck at first.  With Paul Goldschmidt and Ryan Wheeler ahead of him by miles, Davidson definitely has to be worried.  Grade: D+ (Short-term: D-, Long-term: C+) Round 5, Pick 156 - Ryan Wheeler  Born: July 10, 1988 in Torrance, California School: Loyola Marymount Univ. Height: 6'4'' Weight: 220 Position: First Base Bats: Left Throws: Right Low-A Yakima - ABs: 234 BA/OBP/SLG: .363/.461/.538 XBH: 20 2Bs/3 3Bs/5 HRs ISO: .175 K:BB: 28:37 SB:CS: 7:4 BABIP: .394 Errors: 5 Mid-A South Bend - ABs: 29 BA/OBP/SLG: .345/.472/.552 XBH: 1 2B/1 3B/1 HR ISO: .207 K:BB: 4:5 SB:CS: 0:0 BABIP: .375 Errors: 0 Zephon: Ryan Wheeler flat out raked in both Yakima and South Bend, and was solid, if not spectacular in pretty much every facet of his game. He put up a great batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage. He had a positve strike out to walk ratio, in addition to having an excellent ISO percentage. Who knows if Wheeler will have a place on the team, considering that during the team's entire existence, there has been a revolving door at first base.  Wheeler will more than likely see time in Visalia next year, if he isn't assigned there at the beginning of next season.  It's very possible that if he dominates Visalia, he could see time in Mobile, which would be amazing. This guy is too good, which is maybe why I'm a bit skeptical. Grade: A (Short-term: A, Long-term: A)IHSB: I Love Ryan Wheeler. With just one short season of statistic evidence, Wheeler is the early front-runner for the best pick of the Diamondbacks' 2009 draft. That doesn't mean that he is the best prospect Arizona has from the draft, but he is the highest-ranked for where he was picked, as what appears to be a fifth-round steal for the Snakes. Wheeler has a massive power bat, keeping his ISO over .200 across two levels (which helps to ease BABIP concerns - despite a possible BA drop, he'll have that raw power to keep him on field), the second of which was advanced for his age (albeit for a very short stint), and is just 21 and headed to Visalia to start next season, and only because he did not have enough games at South Bend to justify a two-level jump. However, if he proves his dominance at Visalia quickly, fully expect the Diamondbacks to have a quick trigger in introducing the Southern League to Ryan Wheeler. 21-years-old at High-A is below league average, and 21-years-old at AA is way ahead of the curve. The only thing that I could see getting in Wheeler's way is a struggle to adjust to off-speed pitches, but his K/BB ratio last year (10 more walks than strikeouts - another reason to not worry too much about BABIP regression's effects) leads me to believe he has a great eye at the plate. So, although from day one scouts have agreed that Wheeler's bat would have to carry him through the minors, it definitely appears as though that will not be a problem.  It is definitely good enough to handle him being planted at first base, and while his defense has been rumored to be suspect, he did only have five errors last season. However, it is also very possible that the reason for this is the classic Stone Pillar Technique (if a first-baseman has horrendous lateral range, i.e. that of a Stone Pillar, he cannot be in position to make an error on a ball hit far enough to either side of him because he is not in range to have a chance to make, and consequently screw up, a play) that can allow for first-basemen to appear much more proficient defensively than they are. Regardless, Wheeler certainly has time to develop if need be, and already is, in my opinion, one of the top-10 prospects the organization has. Grade: A+ (Short-term: A+, Long-term: A+) Round 7, Pick 216 - Matt Helm Born: September 01, 1990 in Queen Creek, Arizona School: Hamilton HS Height: 6'2'' Weight: 190 Position: Third Base Bats: Right Throws: Right Low-A Yakima - ABs: 55 BA/OBP/SLG: .291/.339/.364 XBH: 1 2B/1 HR ISO: .073 K:BB: 16:4 SB:CS: 2:0 BABIP: .395 Errors: 0 Zephon: What's there to say? Matt Helm is a local boy, who's very young and will be 19 for the majority of next season. We're working with a very small amount of at bats, so there's not really any point in making any real judgement based on his numbers. He was a third basemen in high school, so if he stays at that position it's going to be tough for him to find a place on the major league team with Mark Reynolds holding down the fort for the forseeable future, not to mention the likes of Bobby Borchering and Matt Davidson also in the minors. As noted before, playing time next year will be extremely interesting in South Bend, with the three third basemen all assigned there. Borchering will most likely get the first stab at third, and the real question is where Helm will end up playing. The numbers he put up, although not bad, are disappointing, outside of the batting average. 'nuff said. Grade: C (Short-term: C-, Long-term: C+)IHSB: The team signed Matt Helm to a pretty hefty bonus right before the deadline for signing draft picks, and frankly, from Helm's perspective, I just don't get it. The team picked both Bobby Borchering and Matt Davidson ahead of Helm, who play the two positions that Helm can play. The team has Mark Reynolds already entrenched at one of those positions in the majors. The kid slid to the seventh round because of injury concerns, and could have gone to college and worked his way into the upper rounds and gotten himself even more money.  All of this aside, we ended up with a very young, high-ceiling corner infielder (especially for the seventh-round) who we'll really get to get a good look at next season, probably in Rookie-ball. It's not that Helm doesn't have a good future ahead of him, it's that it just probably isn't going to be in Arizona due to his path to the majors being blocked by a number of guys ranked higher than him. Grade: B (Short-term: N/A, Long-term: B) Round 8, Pick 246 - Paul Goldschmidt Born: September 10, 1987 in The Woodlands, Texas School: Texas State Height: 6'4'' Weight: 220 Position: First Base Bats: Right Throws: Right Rookie-level Missoula - ABs: 287 BA/OBP/SLG: .334/.408/.638  XBH: 27 2Bs/3 3Bs/18 HRs ISO: .303 K:BB: 74:36 SB:CS 4:3 BABIP: .390 Errors: 4 Zephon: Goldschmidt had by miles the best season of any of the players drafted in 2009. Goldschmidt lead the Pioneer league in slugging percentage, OPS, ISO, and home runs. He was second in hits, walks, doubles, total bases, and on base percentage. He was also third in RBIs, and fifth in batting average. So as you can see, Paul Goldschmidt had a fantastic debut season. His ISO percentage is something that has to be mentioned, since it's an astronomically high .304 (just for comparison, Mark Reynolds' ISO this year was .283). The only area I see a problem is his k:BB ratio, which isn't bad, but could be better. If he can repeat this level of performance in Visalia, and work on his K:BB ratio, he'll be at or near the top of the Diamondbacks top prospect list. Unfortunately, he has some competition for the first base job with Brandon Allen possibly locking up the position at the major league level, and Ryan Wheeler putting up excellent numbers in his debut season in the minors. Grade: A (Short-term: A+, Long-term: A-)IHSB: Much as I'd love to also fly the "Paul Goldschmidt for Savior" banners across my dorm room, one major factor that really needs to be mentioned is his age. 21-years-old isn't necessarily old for Rookie-ball, but it's important for a guy at that age and that level to put up good numbers, like Goldschmidt did, to have prospect value. He obviously proved that he was just put at the wrong level, and frankly I don't understand how the team didn't promote him at some point during to year to see if he could equal these numbers at another level and set himself up for a confident start at Hi-A next season, where he really honestly belongs, rather than him likely starting next year at Mid-A (mostly because Ryan Wheeler will be at Hi-A - perhaps if Wheeler and Goldschmidt both produce, Wheeler will get sent up to AA, allowing for Goldschmidt to inherit the Hi-A 1B job). The numbers are out-of-this-world ridiculous. 18 homeruns in your first professional season is unheard of. Small number of errors, although his D is supposedly suspect (Stone Pillar Technique? See Ryan Wheeler analysis for a definition). But I really need to see this type of production at a level where his age is ahead of the curve rather than behind the curve in order to label the guy a top prospect in the system. Also, there are concerns about precisely how open our first-base position is, with Brandon Allen in his early-twenties, and Ryan Wheeler ahead of Goldschmidt in the system. Absolutely, certainly, positively not a bad pick, but just not an A-pick, IMO. Wheeler, for instance, is younger and better than Goldschmidt. Grade: B+ (Short-term: A-, Long-term B)     With the 2009 season in the books, the Snakes added a ton of depth at the infield corners, leaving the convenient problem of now having to find at-bats for all of them next seasons.  With his post-season power surge, the organization will probably move Borchering (who is younger than IHSB, Zephon, and emilylovesthedbacks - a crazy thought for all of us) ahead of Matt Helm and into the everyday third-baseman job at South Bend.  Matt Davidson did nothing at Yakima last year to suggest that he belongs at any higher level, so he'll get the Yakima first-baseman everyday job.  Wheeler will be the everyday first-baseman for Visalia to start next season after his power surge in both Yakima and South Bend.  Helm only had 55 ABs at Yakima last year, and while he didn't necessarily struggle, he didn't demonstrate that he needs to be put ahead of Borchering, and so Helm will probably be the everyday third-baseman for Yakima again this season.  Goldschmidt's numbers (and age) will warrant him a two-level jump and a jump ahead of Davidson in the system, and so he'll start at South Bend with their everyday first-baseman job. Next week we'll be looking at the middle infielders in the draft -- Chris Owings, Brent Greer, David Nick, David Narodowski, and the possible anti-Christ (pick 666 himself). Stay tuned for part two! Before we close, I, Zephon, would just like to make note of the resources we used to create this series of articles: Minorleaguebaseball.com, Fangraphs.com, and Baseball-Reference.com; plus a special thanks to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic and emilylovesthedbacks for doing the final edits to the article. I'd also like to thank Ihatesouthbend for collaborating with me on these articles. With out him, this series of articles wouldn't be possible, and wouldn't be nearly as good... So thanks dude. To everyone else, thanks for reading, and we'll see you next wednesday! (I couldn't wait any longer to post this one, so it's going up early) Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1025404/dbacks-unveil-spring-training-slate.html D-backs unveil Spring Training slate Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1025403/2010-spring-training-schedule-announced.html More photos » by Ed Andrieski - AP Spring Training. Can't come soon enough... Browse more photos » Here's something to look forward to: Spring Training starts in less than four months. It'll be the last season for the Diamondbacks in Tucsom - ground was broken on the new spring training complex over in Scottsdale yesterday, and the facilities there will be in use for the 2011 pre-season [unless that whole troublesome poltergeist thing kicks in, as it tends to do when you build on Native American land...] The last hurrah for the Diamondbacks at Tucson Electric Park will be Tuesday, March 30th, against the Texas Rangers. All told, there will be 15 home games at TEP, two games against the Rockies at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson and 15 games in the Phoenix-metro area, including two exhibition games to conclude the Cactus League schedule at Chase Field on April 2 and 3 against the Chicago Cubs. Weekend games in the Phoenix ares before then are March 6th vs. the Giants in Scottsdale, Sunday 14th (split-squad) vs. the Rangers in Surprise, Saturday 20th vs. the Mariners at Peoria, and Saturday 27th vs. the Indians in Goodyear. Ticket prices for games at Tucson Electric Park are: Field Level Infield $18; Covered Mezzanine $16; Field Level Grandstand $14; Lower Bleachers $9; Upper Bleachers $7; Lawn seats $5. Tickets for all "home" games go on sale in person from the TEP ticket office, at 9am, on Jan. 23. Beginning 11 am, Jan. 23, tickets can also be bought only at dbacks.com or by calling the D-backs ticket office (866.672.1343). The exhibition games against the Cubs at Chase Field go on sale with the remainder of the regular-season home games on March 6. The full schedule can be found after the jump. Here's the full schedule. All games start at 1:05pm, unless otherwise stated. Date                Opponent                           Site            Thursday, March 4   Colorado Rockies                   TEP             Friday, March 5     Chicago Cubs                       Mesa            Saturday, March 6   San Francisco Giants               Scottsdale      Sunday, March 7     Colorado Rockies (ss)              TEP                                 Colorado Rockies (ss)              Hi Corbett      Monday, March 8     Cleveland Indians                  TEP             Tuesday, March 9    Cincinnati Reds                    Goodyear        Wednesday, March 10 Los Angeles Dodgers                Glendale        Thursday, March 11  Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim      TEP             Friday, March 12    Oakland Athletics                  TEP             Saturday, March 13  Los Angeles Dodgers                TEP             Sunday, March 14    Texas Rangers (ss)                 Surprise                            Colorado Rockies (ss)              Hermosillo, MX  Monday, March 15    Seattle Mariners                   TEP             Tuesday, March 16   Cincinnati Reds                    TEP             Wednesday, March 17 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim      Tempe           Thursday, March 18  Oakland Athletics                  Phoenix         Friday, March 19    Kansas City Royals                 TEP             Saturday, March 20  Seattle Mariners                   Peoria          Sunday, March 21    San Francisco Giants               TEP             Monday, March 22    San Diego Padres                   TEP             Tuesday, March 23   Off DayWednesday, March 24 Chicago White Sox                  Glendale        Thursday, March 25  Chicago Cubs                       TEP             Friday, March 26    Chicago White Sox                  TEP             Saturday, March 27  Cleveland Indians                  Goodyear        Sunday, March 28    Milwaukee Brewers                  TEP             Monday, March 29    San Diego Padres                   Peoria          7:05 p.m.Tuesday, March 30   Texas Rangers                      TEP             Wednesday, March 31 Colorado Rockies                   Hi Corbett      Thursday, April 1   Kansas City Royals (ss)            Surprise                            Milwaukee Brewers (ss)             Maryvale        Friday, April 2     Chicago Cubs                       Chase Field     6:40 p.m.Saturday, April 3   Chicago Cubs                       Chase Field     1:10 p.m. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1025402/diamondbacks-featured-on-mlb-networks-quothot-stovequot-thursday.html Diamondbacks featured on MLB Network's "Hot Stove," Thursday The Diamondbacks will be covered as part of MLB Network?s "30 Clubs, 30 Recaps" segment during their Hot Stove program on Thursday. Analysts Victor Rojas, Harold Reynolds, Al Leiter and Jon Heyman will review the Diamondbacks? 2009 season and discuss the team?s strengths and weaknesses. It's on at 4pm AZ time, and the show also includes discussion of the NL Cy Young winner [which is why there's no mention of it on the MLB Network website!] It's also repeated at 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Arizona time,. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1024399/dbacks-release-2010-spring-schedule.html Tickets for the Diamondbacks' final season in Tucson will be available Jan. 23. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1023294/royals-greinke-wins-al-cy-young-award.html Zack Greinke beating out Seattle's Felix Hernandez. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1020270/coghlan-nl-rookie-year-bailey-in-al.html Chris Coghlan and Andrew Bailey both agreed to change, then quickly got their chance in the majors. Now each has a rookie reward that will last forever. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1018990/rough-year-leads-to-quiet-awards-front.html Rough year leads to quiet awards front Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1017387/hall-chats-about-offseason-interests.html Hall chats about offseason interests Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1016383/chris-coghlan-wins-nl-rookie-year-gerardo-parra-mentioned.html Chris Coghlan wins NL Rookie of the Year, Gerardo Parra mentioned "Florida Marlins outfielder Chris Coghlan was elected the National League Rookie of the Year Award by the BBWAA. Although not on seven of the 32 ballots, Coghlan out-pointed Philadelphia Phillies pitcher J.A. Happ, the only player named on all ballots. Coghlan was listed first on 17 ballots compared to 10 for Happ and finished with 105 points, based on the 5-3-1 tabulation system. Coghlan placed second on six ballots and third on two while Happ had 11 seconds and 11 thirds to total 94 points." Gerardo Parra got a 3rd-place vote, to finish equal-8th, and A's closer Andrew Bailey won the AL award. A thought strikes me: with the closure of the Tribune at the end of the year, who's gonna be the second writer from Phoenix in 2010? Will they give two votes to the Republic? Or will it be Steve Gilbert? Because, as far as I can tell, there's only one paper covering the team in Phoenix now. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1015004/this-week-bit-in-diamondbacks-baseball-silver-sluggers-relevance-we-back-buckner.html More photos » by Jae C. Hong - AP With Jedi mind-tricks like levitation in his locker, Billy Buckner will be a force to be reckoned with in 2010. Browse more photos » Been a somewhat mad few days - the deadline for our Fear FIlm Festival has meant we've spent most of last week watching indie horror flicks, from the excellent to the...not-so excellent. Fortunately, not a lot happening on the Diamondbacks' front - I should mention that TWIDB entries will appear only on an "as needed" basis throughout the winter. The GM winter meetings proved largely bereft of significant actual Diamondbacks news - and I'd simply have ended up repeating Nick Piecoro's entirely acceptable coverage of the event. Which is what I'm about to do anyway. We're still kicking the tires on Livan Hernandez, but might also be looking at Randy Wolf; the team is interested in bringing back Augie Ojeda; it's not going to be easy to trade Chris Snyder. Yeah, like I said: not much there worth starting the presses for, never mind stopping them. Still, after the jump, I'll unleash our crack research team, and see if there's anything we might have missed about the Diamondbacks of late. The Silver Slugger went to Ryan Zimmerman of the Nationals, which probably counts as a mild traveshamockery. You're expecting some passionate plea in support of Mark Reynolds' candidacy for the award, no doubt - and he did have more home-runs. But despite the name, the award is not just about power, but all offensive numbers, an on that basis, should have gone to Pablo Sandoval. His OPS was more than fifty points higher than Zimmerman's, with a higher BA, OBP and SLG. Zimmerman (and, indeed, Reynolds) did have more RBI than Sandoval, but that's mostly due to the San Francisco offense, a.k.a. Pablo and the Seven Dwarfs. Here's the stats for the top five third-basemen in the NL, as measured by OPS+. See if you can work out how Zimmerman was superior. Rk Player OPS+ Age Tm PA R H HR RBI BB SO SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS 1 Pablo Sandoval 144 22 SFG 633 79 189 25 90 52 83 5 5 .330 .387 .556 .943 2 Ryan Zimmerman 131 24 WSN 693 110 178 33 106 72 119 2 0 .292 .364 .525 .888 3 Aramis Ramirez 131 31 CHC 342 46 97 15 65 28 43 2 1 .317 .389 .516 .905 4 Mark Reynolds 125 25 ARI 662 98 150 44 102 76 223 24 9 .260 .349 .543 .892 5 Casey McGehee 124 26 MIL 394 58 107 16 66 34 67 0 2 .301 .360 .499 .859   As noted in a fanpost, Dan Bickley has returned to flogging the Diamondbacks in his latest column, in part because of the idiotic comments apparently made by Colin Cowherd suggesting the D-backs be contracted [no doubt partly out of spite due to the situation with frequent show guest, Eric Byrnes]. "D-Backs in battle to stay relevant," says Bickley. Well, duh. Hello? It's the off-season? How "relevant" are the Cardinals in April? While there are some good points - an improvement over the usual Bickley nonsense - it still contains nonsense like, "Can we get Orlando Hudson back?" and "Ticket buyers have become scarce. With the Cardinals soaring and the Suns surging, this team better find some competitive traction soon." Cardinals soaring? The team that requires an endless series of ticket-selling extensions to avoid TV blackouts? Suns surging? Hang on, not even two weeks previously, someone was writing in the Republic, "The way basketball was in Phoenix for the past four years [it] might never be again. With a new season barely under way, the Suns have embraced reality... They already have conceded that their impressive sellout streak will end Sunday.. More than 2,000 seats remain for the second home game of a new season... They likely will return to the playoffs. But will they ever recapture the magic? It will take many more victories...to challenge the football team, the one that painted the town from orange to red." Who was that writer, questioning the Suns' relevance? Ah, yes: Dan Bickley. "Many more victories"? Try nine. For here we are, the 9-2 Suns are Bickley's darlings, and had a massive lead in the azcentral.com poll to determine the town's favorite team. Well, there's a shocker. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: sports fans in this state are about as loyal as a Van Buren hooker. There are so many front-runners, they could re-enact the Boston Marathon, and possess the sporting memories (plus, too often, the sporting knowledge) of a goldfish. The solution to the Diamondbacks' alleged lack of "relevance" is simple. Win more games. That's all it takes in Phoenix, and the fans will come flocking back, especially after the Suns and Cardinals are both one and done in the post-season. Now, how does the team win more games? Good question... Andrew Kneeland takes a look at three signings the D-backs need to make to improve in 2010: Russell Branyan at 1B, leftie Jarrod Washburn for the rotation and Mike Gonzalez for the bullpen. Hmmm. Not so sure. Branyan is another left-handed 1B, and we already have that side of things adequately covered, in Brandon Allen and Josh Whitesell. Washburn's 3.78 AL ERA looks very nice, but was based on a .257 BABIP [his career average is .280], so he'll likely be over-valued this winter. He's also an extreme fly-ball pitcher, and we know how that plays at Chase. And a three year, $15m contract for a middle-reliever? Not my idea of where we should be spending the money. The last sentence of the piece, "He is an intern at the Green Valley News," explains a lot. Thanks for playing, Andrew. Former Diamondback Orlando Hudson = not happy. In particular, not happy about Joe Torre, and the way their relationship imploded as the season went on, with Hudson seeing less and less playing-time. Said O-Dawg, "My teammates talked to me about it more than Joe did, but I never had any answers because (Torre) and I never talked. There was no conversation... I guess he felt I wasn't the man for the job if he wasn't putting me in there." Doesn't seem likely, based on this, that Hudson will be back in Chavez Ravine next season. I'm sure Bickley will be pleased by that. Brandon Webb was seen at the PIR over the weekend, at the NASCAR races - not too much of a shock, where else would a good ol' Kentucky boy who loves hunting be? Even though the Diamondbacks do have a NASCAR connection - the Hall of Fame racing team is owned by former Arizona shareholders Jeff Moorad + Tom Garfinkel, and Panda Express CEO Tom Davin - we won't be seeing Webb on the track any time soon. He said "It's a little too dangerous for me out there. I'll stick to the mound." Here's a name from past: Wally Backman. His tenure as Diamondbacks manager was among the shortest in major-league history, after unsavory incidents from his past came to light, and he was fired four days and zero games after being hired - possibly the low point of the nightmare which was 2004. Five and a half years later, he has finally made it back to a major-league organization. He did have a couple of spells in indie ball, but has now been hired as manager of the Brooklyn Cyclones, the Mets Single-A affiliate. I can't think of a more perfect organization for Backman. I've been playing about with the enhanced Play Index feature over at Baseball-Reference.com, which now allows you to search in a variety of new ways. For instance, I found out that twice last season, the Diamondbacks used ten players in a game who were aged 25 or younger, on June 26 and July 4. [This week's trivia - how many of those young gentlement can you name? Between the two contests, there were a dozen in total] That's a number unmatched by any team in the majors - only the Padres and Braves managed more than eight - and is more evidence for the ongoing youth movement of the roster. Speaking of B-R.com, in the past, we have sponsored various Diamondbacks there. These have included such illustrious names as Chris Snyder, Miguel Montero and Chad Tracy, as well as the not-quite-so illustrious ones of Dustin Nippert and Jailen Peguero. The departure of Yusmeiro Petit for pastures Pacific Northwestern means we had to look at putting our name on another page, and keeping ourselves in the ranks of supporters of this splendid reference site, alongside a couple of other posters here. But who should we pick? The ones available were somewhat limited, especially among the position players - we could get John Hester for $15, and that was about it. Fortunately, things were a little more open on the pitching side. Though all the big names were locked up, we could still get Kevin Mulvey ($10), Bryan Augenstein ($5), Leo Rosales ($5), Blaine Boyer ($10) or Esmerling Vasquez ($5). However, in the end, we went for Billy Buckner at $10. He has a good chance to be in the rotation next year, and is also cheap. We like cheap. Something temporary has been/will be stuck up on the page as a placeholder, but I am entirely open to suggestions as to the text to go on the page. 255-character limit, so get your thinking caps on, folks. Mind you, this has likely condemned Buckner to injury, trade or abduction by aliens between now and Opening Day. Sorry, Billy. [Answer to the trivia question: On June 26th, the ten players used by the Diamondbacks who were aged 25 or younger were: Montero, Upton, Reynolds, Parra, Young, Romero, Buckner, Zavada, Vasquez, Gutierrez. On July 4th, Petit and Scherzer (as a PH!) replaced Buckner and Vasquez.] Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1010400/heat-index-freeagent-forecasting.html The Heat Index predicts where baseball's free agents will land this winter. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/1007476/replay-randy-johsons-20-k-game.html Replay: Randy Johson's 20 K game 6:30pm, Arizona time tonight, the MLB Network are showing Randy Johnson's 20 K outing from May 2001 against the Reds. Sounds like fun... Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/997372/2009-pitties-unsung-hero.html More photos » by Bob Levey - AP Two of our Unsung Heroes nominees combine: Ryan Roberts singles, scoring Augie Ojeda from third base, against the Astros on Aug. 23. Browse more photos » Before we head into the next set of nominations, should quickly mention that the Game of the Year award went to the 18-inning marathon against the Padres on June 7th. At five hours, 45 minutes, the longest in franchise history for more than eight years, with the teams combining to use 18 hurlers who threw 592 pitches. Can't really argue with that: it was definitely a memorable contest: as the guy in charge of writing the recap, my major feeling was relief that it was an afternoon game, not an evening one... We move on to the fourth in our series of awards, for the Unsung Hero of the year. This is the player who made a significant contribution to the team, yet did not receive the appropriate acknowledgment - be that from the media as a whole, or here on the 'Pit - for the services rendered. Juan Gutierrez: 71 IP,1.5 WAR Leading the team in pitching appearances and innings of relief work, Gutierrez in 2009 helped make the trade of Jose Valverde look like a good one for the Diamondbacks. The rookie made 65 appearances, and posted an ERA+ of 113 - only two NL relievers aged 25 and younger worked seventy innings with a better ERA+ [Luke Gregerson and Jonathan Broxton]. Outside of a bad ten days in June, when he allowed nine runs in 2.1 innings, his ERA was barely three, and Gutierrez gave up only two home-runs all year - to Ryan Zimmerman and Jayson Werth, so hardly an embarrassment. After the loss of Chad Qualls at the end of August, Juan became the de facto closer, going a perfect 8-for-8 in save chances, and ending the Diamondbacks' season with a perfect ninth in Wrigley on only ten pitches. Augie Ojeda: 9.6 UZR, 1.5 WAR It'd be easy to look at Ojeda's offensive numbers - .246/.340/.345, with one homer and 16 RBI in 103 games - and see a complete waste of roster space. But that would severely undervalue Ojeda's contribution to the team, especially on defense. There. Ojeda's UZR rating, combined across three positions, was the second-best on the roster, more than twice as much as any other infielder for the 2009 Diamondbacks. In 489.1 innings between second-base and short-stop, Augie committed just three errors, for a fielding percentage of .988..He was perfect at 2B, and only two major-leaguers played more innings there without an error [Craig Counsell and Nick Punto]. Last year, he was paid $712K; fangraphs.com valued him overall at $6.9m. No wonder the team is looking at bringing Augie back. Jon Rauch: 54.1 IP, 110 ERA+ (Arizona only) The odds of Rauch being nominated for any kind of award seemed very bleak after the opening month of the 2009 season: over his first fourteen appearances, opponents were hitting him at a .340 clip, and his ERA was 9.00. However, the seriously unsung Blowfish managed to turn it around, impressing fans not just with his pitching ability, but also the excellent character he displayed, such as pitching both ends of the Florida double-header, getting a save in the nightcap. His ERA the rest of the way with the Diamondbacks was a very respectable 2.91, and many people were sorry to see him traded to the Twins. There, he was a crucial part of Minnesota's surge to the AL Central title, allowing three runs in seventeen games down the stretch. Ryan Roberts: 100 OPS+, 2.0 WAR Only three Arizona players with 75+ PAs had a higher OPS+ than Roberts - getting regular games for the first time in his career, his overall numbers were also better than those of his middle-infield colleagues Stephen Drew (89) and Felipe Lopez (98). Ryan stepped it up following the departure of his heavily-tattoed team-mate, hitting .290/.374/.465 after becoming the regular second-baseman, and earning the right to have a shot at the starting job there in 2010. Roberts was Mark Reynolds' main back-up at 3B, and made a dozen starts in right-field too - using Vernon Wells' glove - to give the team a right-handed hitter out there, rather than lefties Gerardo Parra, Alex Romero or Trent Oeltjen. All this, and Roberts also became a father for the first time in August. As a side-note, anyone know whether Ryan Roberts still qualifies as a rookie or not? I know this sounds surprising - he is 29 now, after all! - but he certainly didn't have enough PA's before this year. It's harder to tell whether he hit the pre-September limit on roster days (45); unless he was sitting on the roster without playing, I'm not inclined to think so. Though he isn't listed as a rookie on ESPN's rookie stats, that isn't really definitive. I'm just trying to work out whether he should be listed as a nominee for the next Pittie. Poll Who was Arizona's unsung hero in 2009? Juan Gutierrez Augie Ojeda Jon Rauch Ryan Roberts   6 votes | Results Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/990542/dbacks-in-battle-to-stay-relevant.html Bickley: With the Cardinals soaring and the Suns surging, the Diamondbacks better find some competitive traction soon. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/990541/afl-gettogether-v20.html I mentioned this in the recap after the last AFL get-together, but I think it got largely ignored. We have a bunch of free tix for next Wednesday night's game at Scottsdale Stadium, between the Mesa Solar Sox and our Scottsdale Scorpions. First pitch is 6:35pm. If anyone wants some, send me an email with your snail-mail address and how many you want, and I'll pop them in the post. That's the best approach, since we might not be getting there much before first pitch, but if you just want to show up and buy your way in, that's fine too! I imagine we'll be lurking behind the Scorpions dugout, in a similar way to where we were in Goodyear [though as Scottsdale is the 'home' team, it might be the other side]. Last chance for pro-ball this year, so hope to see some of you there! Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/989861/catching-prospect-triplea-allstar.html Hester named a Topps Triple-A All-Star Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/987044/dbacks-hester-named-triplea-allstar.html Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/987043/spring-training-2010-cactus-league-schedules-roll-out.html Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/984147/new-dbacks-ballpark-designed-lots-shade.html Fans at the new Diamondbacks spring-training ballpark at the Salt River Reservation will be sun-splashed rather than sun-baked when it opens in 2011. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/982048/freeagent-starters-tricky-proposition-for-dbacks.html Baseball's free-agent market for starting pitchers could shake out in many different ways. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/982047/where-do-diamondbacks-rank-in-2000s.html With the decade coming to a close, it’s inevitable that fans will attempt to categorize, rank, and analyze the Decade That Was. The behavior isn’t unique to baseball fans, but we perhaps take (and talk) it to a different level. The first and most immediate debate is: “Who is the Team of the Decade?” Since there can be, by definition, only one Team of the Decade, that leaves the other 29 fan-bases to wonder: “now, just where the hell does my team rank?”  So that’s what I’m going to attempt to do. First, I’m focusing only team achievements. Individual awards are nice, but quite frankly don’t mean a hill of beans in this discussion. You can collect all the foil Charzards you want, and it’ll cost you some serious coin, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get beat by pure luck or a better strategy. That’s just how games like this are played. The first decade of the 2000’s was a time marked by a certain level of parity, at least on the World Series level. Fourteen different teams won pennants and the chance to represent their league in the Fall Classic. As most of us remember, or at least have heard, the Diamondbacks were one of these teams.For the sake of argument, I’m going to disregard any team that didn’t make the World Series for “Who’s Better, Who’s Best.“ The Atlanta Braves probably had a better overall decade than the Florida Marlins, since the latter only made it to the playoffs once in the decade. A more complete argument might be made if we start including team winning percentages or other deeper statistics, but for the sake of length I’m going to limit this to only championship teams.Like nearly any ranking, there are two extremes: those that have won multiple titles, and those that didn’t win any. At this point the teams can be divided into three categories: multiple titles, one title, no titles. From there, we should be able to rank the teams by category, creating an overall ranking.The top tier is a small group of two: the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Both won two titles, so they’re effectively “tied” in that regard, but the Yankees begin to separate themselves when we consider other things. The Yankees won 8 AL East titles in the 00’s, to the Red Sox 2. The Yankees also won four AL Pennants, going 2-4 in the World Series for the 00’s. The Red Sox have a better average, but only appeared twice. That essentially brings the list to:1. Yankees2. Red SoxThe other group that should be fairly easy to separate out is those that didn’t win a title: the Mets, the Giants, the Astros, the Tigers, the Rockies, and the Rays. At the bottom of the list will be a battle between two woeful franchises: the Tigers and the Rays. Both were Wild Card winners once in the 00’s, made a run to the World Series, and then promptly lost. The Tigers, however, did make a run this year, putting them up just a hair above the Rays:13. Tigers14. RaysNext up has to be the Rockies. They made the playoffs twice in the 00’s, but both times were as a Wild Card. Just hovering above them, however, would be the Mets, who also made the playoffs only twice but at least won a NL East title once. Both the Giants and the Astros were in the playoffs 3 times, but the Giants get the edge with their two NL West championships.9. Giants10. Astros11. Mets12. RockiesNow we get in the meat of things. The remaining six teams all won one World Series in the 00’s, true, but then had varying degrees of success after this. At the bottom of this pile should be the Marlins, who are the winning versions of the Rays and the Tigers in that they only made the playoffs once but when all the way. It’s a tough pick between the White Sox and Diamondbacks, who both made the playoffs three times, all by winning their division. I would give the Diamondbacks a slight edge with their two League Championship appearances, but the White Sox also have one more winning season (7) than the D’backs.The Angels might have more overall playoff appearances than the Phillies (6 to 3), but the latter has the advantage of winning two NL Pennants. Still, the Angels have a impressive record with 5 AL West titles, 1 AL Pennant, and 1 World Series win. So it comes down to the Phillies and Cardinals, who have both appeared in 2 World Series during the 00’s, and both went 1-1. Oddly enough, both lost their Series against one of the two teams that had 2 World Series titles for the decade (Cardinals to the Red Sox, and Phillies to the Yankees). The Cardinals clearly had the better decade, however. The Red Birds tallied up 6 NL Central titles and a Wild Card, to the Phillies’ 3 NL East wins.3. Cardinals4. Phillies5. Angels6. Diamondbacks7. White Sox8. MarlinsSo overall, the Diamondback’s didn’t fare so bad. Three NL West crowns, two LCS appearances, 1 NL Pennant, 1 World Series win, and 6 winning seasons. By my oh-so-scientific ranking, I’m putting them at #6 for the Decade, which is pretty darn good.Where do you think the Diamondbacks rank?The LIST:1. Yankees2. Red Sox3. Cardinals4. Phillies5. Angels6. Diamondbacks7. White Sox8. Marlins9. Giants10. Astros11. Mets12. Rockies13. Tigers14. Rays  As an aside, the Diamondbacks are about the middle of the pack if you rank the decade by wins overall.  It should be also noted that the top three teams in wins also were the top three in my ranking. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/981252/matt-williams-bo-porter-join-arizona-coaching-staff.html More photos » by Alex Brandon - AP The easy part of coaching. New AZ employee Bo Porter waits to congratulate a home-run hitter as he rounds third base. Browse more photos » It has been anounced that Matt Williams will be the Diamondbacks' first-base coach next season, with Bo Porter becoming third-base coach. In the official release, AJ Hinch said: "We are really proud to add Matt Williams and Bo Porter to our staff .. Our coaching staff will have a unique blend of coaching styles, competitiveness, and personality that will help our players in every aspect of the game, mentally and physically. As a staff, we are excited and ready to start preparing together for a successful 2010." The positions were left vacant following the decisions not to offer contracts to the former incumbernts, Lorenzo Bundy and Chip Hale respectively. It has been widely stated that Hale will be the Mets' third-base coach next year, while Bundy is not apparently actively seeking work - he had a benign tumor removed from his earlobe in October. More analysis after the jump. This will be Matt Williams' first formal position as a big-league coach, though he was a temporary manager of the Double-A Mobile BayBears, while Brett Butler recovered from a stroke. However, Williams has been working with Mark Reynolds this season, and his duties will also cover infield coaching - hopefully, he'll be able to pass on some of the skills that earned him four Gold Gloves at third-base [though as noted already, Gold Gloves may be the most meaningless of all the awards]. One imagines this will put his broadcasting career on hold for a bit, though he may be able to retain his position as 'Special Assistant to the CEO,' acquired shortly before he became a minority owner, with 0.5% of the shares in the club. Just last month, Williams expressed his interest in a coaching role after the vacancies opened up with the team. "If they're considering me, I'd love to sit down and talk to them about it to see what options there might be there," said Williams, adding that he was "most comfortable in uniform on the field working with players." Bo Porter is probably less of a known quantity, though apparently "has a long history with Hinch." Not quite sure how this can be the case, Porter having been in the Marlins' organization since 2005. I do see they played together for the A's in 2000 (and look what rookie started in RF for Oakland, in the game box-score linked above!). For the past three seasons, however, he has been their third-base and outfield coach, and he'll be doing the same for the Diamondbacks, so there should be not much new to learn there. Interestingly, he was also the club's baserunning instructor, and one wonders if he'll also be asked to focus on this area with Arizona. He was offered a one-year contract to stay with Florida, and was also scheduled to manage Mesa in the AFL this winter, but declined the contract and was replaced in Mesa as a result. He's a relatively young 37-year old, though this still makes him a couple of years older than our manager. Scoping out the opinions expressed about him over on our siblings at Fish Stripes, they don't exactly seem too upset at the loss of Porter, though Craig says,  "He did a decent job with the outfielders." Could be interesting at third-base, with Porter being criticized for being too conservative and not sending runners who could have scored. That'd be a bit of a contrast to Chip 'The Windmill' Hale who, it often seemed, never met an opposing outfield arm he didn't like. It was also announced that Glenn Sherlock would be retained as the team's bullpen and catching coach. He has been with the  Diamondbacks since the franchise was founded in 1998, in a range of jobs. He was the bench coach from 1998-2002, but then moved to bench coach, replacing Bob Melvin when he went to manage Seattle; Sherlock began 2004 covering first-base, but shifted to third after the arrival of Al Pedrique. However, he went back to the bullpen in time for the 2005 season, and next will be his sixth consecutive and eleventh season in all at the position. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/980128/nl-gold-glove-winners-announced-pardon-me-while-i-hold-my-sides.html The annual traveshamockery that are the Gold Glove awards has crawled out from under a rock for the season just finished. While there's nothing quite as pitiful as last year's award to Nate McLouth - or the American League giving Derek Jeter another Gold Glove - these do tend to fly in te face of just about every established advanced fielding metric. The following table lists who "should" have won the awards, based on UZR per 150 games. The number after each actual winner, shows where they ranked by that metric at their position. Pos Player Team GG Should be P Adam Wainwright StL 1st N/A C Yadier Molina StL 2nd N/A 1B Adrian Gonzalez (2nd) SD 2nd Derrek Lee 2B Orlando Hudson (7th) LA 4th Chase Utley 3B Ryan Zimmerman (1st) Was 1st Ryan Zimmerman SS Jimmy Rollins (5th) Phi 3rd Rafael Furcal OF Matt Kemp (11th) LA 1st Nyjer Morgan OF Shane Victorino (17th) Phi 2nd Randy Winn OF Michael Bourn (6th) Hou 1st Colby Rasmus Shallow, if deeply disappointed, analysis can be found after the jump. Well, I guess at least they got Zimmerman right. And you could argue a decent case for Gonzalez. The rest of the awards range from the questionable to the laughable - the awards given to Orlando Hudson and Shane Victorino were particularly jaw-dropping.  One site has provided what it claims is a breakdown of the voting at second-base and in the outfield. O-Dawg didn't just win, he got more votes than every other second-baseman combined, and almost three times as many as Chase Utley. I would love to see an explanation from anyone who chose Hudson, detailing on what they based their selection. There's no UZR numbers available for pitchers and catchers: I can't complain too much about the one for Molina - he won the Fielding Bible award, as the best in the majors at his position. However, you can probably name a good few pitchers who come to mind quicker than Wainwright: I think his nomination is based solely on the fact that he was the pitcher with zero errors who had the most chances (56). Joel Pinero - one error in 59 chances - must be kicking himself for his error on May 8. However, I'm somewhat surprised voters didn't pick Greg Maddux, out of sheer habit, since he had won eighteen of the past nineteen GG. I guess I should be happy they noticed he pitched only forty innings. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/979006/diamondbacks-add-williams-porter-as-coaches-ap.html Former Arizona slugger Matt Williams is joining the Diamondbacks as first base coach. A five-time All-Star third baseman, the 43-year-old Williams will make his big league coaching debut. He played for the club from 1998-2003 and recently completed his fifth season as a team broadcaster. Bo Porter will also join manager A.J. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/979005/williams-porter-added-to-coaching-staff.html Williams, Porter added to coaching staff Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/979004/griffey-staying-mariners-for-2010.html Ken Griffey Jr. and the Mariners agreed Wednesday to another one-year contract that will keep the popular player in Seattle next year. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/979003/dbacks-add-matt-williams-to-coaching-staff.html The Diamondbacks named Matt Williams as first base coach and Bo Porter as third base coach. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/979002/sb-nation-awards-cy-young.html The Giants got a great deal from China on some remaindered figures, and are preparing a commemorative give away to celebrate Lincecum winning the SB Nation Cy Young... View full size photo » The Cy Young may be considered among the most straightforward of all the awards. For MVP, there's no clear-cut definition of what "Most Valuable" means; for Rookie of the Year, there's debate over whether Japanese players should be considered, whether playing time is imporant and if it's future potential or current numbers that matter; and even for Manager of the Year, you can argue over how much it's an award for front-office work, in constructing a roster, and how much credit should be given to the man in the dugout. The Cy Young, however, is for the best pitcher: surely not much room for argument there. Well... That might be the case in the American League this season, but in our league... Not so much. After the jump we'll see how the definition of "best" isn't so clear-cut as one might think. Rk Player Team 1st 2nd 3rd Pts 1 Tim Lincecum San Francisco Giants 18 13 - 129 2 Chris Carpenter St. Louis Cardinals 9 4 7 64 3 Adam Wainwright St. Louis Cardinals 4 4 10 42 4 Javier Vazquez Atlanta Braves - 5 7 22 5 Dan Haren Arizona Diamondbacks - 3 4 13 6 Ubaldo Jimenez Colorado Rockies - 1 1 4 7 Cliff Lee Philadelphia Phillies - - 1 1 8 Jair Jurrjens Atlanta Braves - - 1 1 O RLY? I'm pretty surprised by the landslide in favor of Timmeh. CC - Carpenter, not Sabathia - was a clear victor in ERA+, and to me, that's easily the most important category. In the absence of any significant mitigating factors, stopping the opposition from scoring runs is what good pitching is all about, and Carpenter was the best in the National League at doing that. For your interest, I pulled the relevant statistics for each nominee out of Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index v2.0 [even more lovely than before: you can now pick columns and do all manner of cool stuff], and they're shown below. Well, except for Cliff Lee, who pitched less than eighty innings. Quite how this qualifies him for the Cy Young escapes me - but apparently, one voter felt otherwise... Rk Player ERA+ W L IP H R ER BB SO ERA HR OPS 1 Chris Carpenter 185 17 4 192.2 156 49 48 38 144 2.24 7 .581 2 Tim Lincecum 173 15 7 225.1 168 69 62 68 261 2.48 10 .561 3 Jair Jurrjens 160 14 10 215.0 186 71 62 75 152 2.60 15 .660 4 Adam Wainwright 158 19 8 233.0 216 75 68 66 212 2.63 17 .646 8 Javier Vazquez 145 15 10 219.1 181 75 70 44 238 2.87 20 .612 10 Danny Haren 143 14 10 229.1 192 83 80 38 223 3.14 27 .635 14 Ubaldo Jimenez 130 15 12 218.0 183 87 84 85 198 3.47 13 .635 I voted Carpenter, Lincecum, Jurrjens - straight ERA+ - and while I expected a few voters to be bedazzled by the gaudy bauble of Lincecums strikeouts, as opposed to Carpenter's better ERA and WHIP, I didn't think the margin would be 2:1. Nor did I expect 35% of voters to ignore Carpenter entirely,. I'm wondering if perhaps the St. Louis vote was somewhat split between Carpenter and Wainwright, with the latter's league-leading total in wins and innings distracting voters from CC? Personally, when you get up beyond about 180 innings, I don't think you can use this as a yard-stick, as the number thrown begins to depend on things like managerial style, bullpen strength, and in any given NL start, when the pitcher's spot is due to bat. I couldn't quite bring myself to vote for Haren. If the ballot had been held at the break, he'd have been my sure-fire choice for #1 - and he got jobbed for starting the All-Star game. But a 4.62 ERA in the second-half [and later performances are always weighted more heavily by voters] dropped him out of contention. Not, however, as low as Ubaldo Jimenez. Russ and Rox Girl of Purple Row has already 'fessed to having been the votes; I think we should charitably assume it's a result of them being so used to pitching mediocrity at Coors. Since 1993, 131 qualifying NL starters have had a bettter ERA+ than Jimenez this year. One played for Colorado (Joe Kennedy, 134 in 2004). Over in the American League, it was almost a unanimous decision for Zack Greinke, with only one stubborn voter holding out for Roy Halladay. Can't argue with the choice there, because since the game became integrated, only three AL pitchers have had a better ERA+ than Greinke's 203: Martinez (1999, 2000, 2003), Clemens (1990, 1997) and Ron Guidre (1978). If I had a vote, I'd probably have put Halladay ahead of Verlander, due to his far superior ERA+ (157 vs. 132), but there's not really too much to argue with here. Rk Player Team 1st 2nd 3rd Pts 1 Zack Greinke Kansas City Royals 28 1 - 143 2 Felix Hernandez Seattle Mariners - 17 6 57 3 Justin Verlander Detroit Tigers - 8 9 33 4 Roy Halladay Toronto Blue Jays 1 2 11 22 5 CC Sabathia New York Yankees - 1 2 5 6 Jon Lester Boston Red Sox - - 1 1 Finally, Baseball Prospectus unveiled their Internet Baseball Awards, which are an open ballot, in which anyone can vote. This leads to some results best described as "interesting": for example, I'd like to thank Mrs. Gutierrez for making her son Juan #1 on her NL Cy Young ballot. And all hail Miguel Montero, =90th for NL MVP! But perhaps the most amusing numbers can be found at the bottom of the Manager of the Year ballot, where someone voted Bob Melvin as Manager of the Year. Boy, those 29 games must have really impressed someone. Diamondhacks, was that you? :-) Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/975128/gm-byrnes-may-spend-more-on-bullpen.html D-Backs GM Josh Byrnes seems to be softening his unwillingness to spend money on the bullpen. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/974174/dbacks-augenstein-learning-in-afl.html D-backs' Augenstein learning in AFL Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/973402/upton-making-mark-off-field-too.html D-Backs star Justin Upton is eager to become more active in the community. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/973401/livan-hernandez.html Livan Hernandez? Livan Hernandez? Per Nick Piecoro, "The only thing we can give you at this point in the day is a fifth-starter possibility: familiar face Livan Hernandez. We?ve heard the Diamondbacks are considering bringing him back, most likely more for his role in the clubhouse and how he can help young players than for his potential performance." "it?s clear the club needs more starting pitching depth beyond just Billy Buckner, Bryan Augenstein and Kevin Mulvey. Hernandez probably would be about as effective as those guys, perhaps providing roughly league-average production for a fifth-starter. There are a lot of other options for fifth starters -- another Cuban, Jose Contreras, is one that would make sense -- but the Diamondbacks always have been appreciative of the intangibles Hernandez brings to the clubhouse." I'd rather see Billy Buckner in the role of #5 starter than Livan. We don't really have any shortage of potential #5's - it's the gaping hole left by the departures of Davis and Garland that needs to be filled. And Livan is certainly not up to that these days. Elsewhere, the Mets are interested in Chris Snyder - apparently they wanted some kind of swap for their second-baseman Luis Castillo. "That initial foray proved unsuccessful. But the Mets do remain interested in Snyder." Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/972456/baseball-gms-pass-on-expanding-replay.html No vote on replay following a postseason filled with umpires' blown calls. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/970497/sb-nation-awards-rookie-year.html by Matt Slocum - AP Tommy Hanson = NL Rookie of the Year View full size photo » Moving on to the next in the series of SB Nation awards, we have the voting for Rookie of the Year. In contrast to the Manager of the Year award yesterday, which was a landslide for Jim Tracy, this was a great deal closer. The top four contenders all received between six and nine first place votes and it was largely the distinctions further down the rankings which decided the final victory. One thing, however, remained unchanged: the word "Diamondbacks" was not to be heard on any voter's lips, despite the decent performance by the like of Gerardo Parra in this area. After the jump, we'll go through the ballot in detail, and throw a few reminders at you, in case you're not quite able to put a face to the name. Rk Player Team 1st 2nd 3rd Pts 1 Tommy Hanson Atlanta Braves 9 9 6 78 2 J.A. Happ Philadelphia Phillies 6 9 7 64 3 Andrew McCutchen Pittsburgh Pirates 8 3 5 54 4 Chris Coghlan Florida Marlins 7 5 4 54 5 Dexter Fowler Colorado Rockies - 3 1 10 6 Randy Wells Chicago Cubs - - 6 6 7 Garrett Jones Pittsburgh Pirates 1 - - 5 8 Casey McGehee Milwaukee Brewers - 1 2 5 9 Seth Smith Colorado Rockies - 1 - 3 Arizona faced winner Tommy Hanson on August 17th in Atlanta., and he pitched pretty well that day, giving up two runs on six hits over six innings - he walked none and struck out seven. Arizona lost 8-4, with Hanson taking the win, though to be honest, the six unearned runs allowed by Max Scherzer that day, probably had something to do with it as much as Hanson.  Curiously, runner-up J.A. Happ posted exactly the same line against us, when we faced the Phillies on July 29th. However, he ended up with the loss, the Braves running into the buzz-saw which was, er, Yusmeiro Petit. The Petit Unit shut down the potent Philadelphia line-up for six innings, and Justin Upton drove in three runs as we blanked the visitors 4-0. Based on their performance against us, Randy Wells would probably be a Rookie of the Year contender, as he blanked us for seven innings during the final series at Wrigley. On the position player side, if we were going purely on performances against the Diamondbacks, neither Andrew McCutchen nor Chris Coghlan would likely have qualified, as neither made much of an impression. In six games, McCutchen went 5-for-29, with no home-runs and one RBI, though five walks helped elevate his OPS to a merely mediocre .693. Chris Coghlan would have been delighted with anything like that: in seven games, he was 4-for-25, posting a line of .162/.192/.200, and a K:BB ratio of 6:1. Better numbers were posted by Casey McGehee (7-for-12 with two HR), though he only played in three games against Arizona. In more at-bats, the award would go to Dexter Fowler, who in 38 PAs versus the Diamondbacks, was at .310/.459/.586, with three stolen bases. My ballot went Happ, Coghlan, Hanson. Even though Happ was relatively old for a rookie, at 26, you can't ignore a 145 ERA+. Some of the raw numbers, such as WHIP, went in Hanson's favor, and at age only 22, he's got astonishing potential - he's probably more likely to win a Cy Young down the road, and become another in the long line of great young Braves pitching. However, Happ threw almost forty more innings and was also working in a much less pitcher-friendly environment. Despite his struggles against us, Coghlan flourished, ending the year with a .321 batting average, sixth-best in the National League. He also had a credible K:BB ratio of 77:53, and didn't embarrass himself with the glove, in his first professional year playing the outfield. Moving over to the American League, it's really hard to comment meaningfully, as I barely know anything about most of the contenders. Still, got to love any players named "Elvis," especially one playing in Texas. I note Andrew Bailey getting almost twice as many first-place votes, but also getting left off almost half the ballots, and that cost him first-place. It'll always be tough for a closer to win this award. Further down the list, I note former Diamondbacks prospect Brett Anderson, traded to Oakland as part of the Dan Haren trade. He had a solid year, especially given he's only 21. In July, he had a complete-game shutout against the Red Sox, and less than two weeks later, took a perfect game into the eighth. Haren didn't come cheaply... Rk Player Team 1st 2nd 3rd Pts 1 Elvis Andrus Texas Rangers 6 9 6 63 2 Andrew Bailey Oakland Athletics 11 1 3 61 3 Jeff Niemann Tampa Bay Rays 3 5 3 33 4 Rick Porcello Detroit Tigers 2 7 2 33 5 Brett Anderson Oakland Athletics 5 1 3 31 6 Gordon Beckham Chicago White Sox 1 2 8 19 7 Nolan Reimold Baltimore Orioles 1 - 1 6 8 Matt Wieters Baltimore Orioles - 1 3 6 9 Brad Bergesen Baltimore Orioles - 1 - 3 10 Ricky Romero Toronto Blue Jays - 1 - 3 11 Travis Snider Toronto Blue Jays - 1 - 3 Tomorrow, it'll be the Cy Young award, and one hopes that Dan Haren might perhaps merit a mention on a ballot or two there? Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/967375/dbacks-gm-snyder-progressing.html GM Josh Byrnes said catcher Chris Snyder is progressing as expected from his back surgery. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/966838/reynolds-silver-slugger-fate-approaching.html Reynolds' Silver Slugger fate approaching Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/966049/reds-open-spring-training-against-indians.html Cincinnati Reds will play their first two Cactus League game March 5 and 6 at Goodyear Ballpark. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/963858/snyder-debunks-notion-rehab-setback.html Snyder debunks notion of rehab setback Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/962958/sb-nation-awards-manager-year.html More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP Jim Tracy = NL Manager of the Year Browse more photos » As well as the ongoing 'Pitties, we also have an SB Nation-wide set of awards, voted upon by two contributors from each site - in the case of the SnakePit, it's myself and 'Charmer. This week, those awards will be handed out: we start with the Manager of the Year today, and then tomorrow we have the Rookie of the Year; Wednesday is the Cy Young, and Thursday will be the MVP. As with the BBWAA awards, there's one for each league; for obvious reasons, we'll be concentrating on the National League awards, though will also mention the top few finishers in the American League, for completeness. Follow us after the jump, where we'll start with the National League and American League Managers of the Year. Rk Manager Team 1st 2nd 3rd Pts 1 Jim Tracy Colorado Rockies 24 1 2 125 2 Tony LaRussa St. Louis Cardinals 3 7 10 46 3 Fredi Gonzalez Florida Marlins 2 6 5 33 4 Joe Torre Los Angeles Dodgers - 9 2 29 5 Charlie Manuel Philadelphia Phillies - 3 5 14 6 Bruce Bochy San Francisco Giants 1 1 1 9 7 Bobby Cox Atlanta Braves - 1 4 7 8 Bud Black San Diego Padres - 1 1 4 9 John Russell Pittsburgh Pirates - 1 - 3 Probably not too much of a surprise here, with the stunning turnaround achieved by Jim Tracy on the Colorado Rockies impressing the members of the SB Nation academy. After starting the season 18-28 under Clint Hurdle - a win percentage fractionally worse than the one that got the other 2007 NLCS manager, Bob Melvin, fired here in Arizona - Colorado went 74-42 the rest of the way. That extrapolates to a 103-win full season, a stunning turnaround that disproves the argument that in-season managerial changes never work. It worked immediately in Denver, where they went 18-5 over his first four weeks, including a 16-1 run. Be interested to hear from some of the visiting Rockies fans why they think it made such a difference to the team. I am, of course, supremely jealous that it didn't work out quite so well in Arizona - Bob Melvin's winning percentage (.414) was only improved upon slightly by AJ Hinch (.436). One of the suggestions touched upon in 'charmer's end of season review, was that the players in Colorado were much more on board with the change. The ones here had to be convinced, to varying degrees, both of the need for change and that Hinch was the right man for the job, given his lack of managerial experience. My ballot is actually sitting at work, so I'm not certain who I picked, though I'm fairly sure that it was Tracy as my #1 - odds in favor, since he got 80% of the first-place ballots [looks like one blog didn't take part]. A lot less unanimity for the second- and third-place spots, with nine of the 16 NL teams seeing their helmsmen mentioned. I think I went for Fredi Gonzalez as my runner-up, based on the wonders worked in Florida on a budget that could be funded from the back of the sofa in George Steinbrenner's office. Fire sale or not, the Marlins are probably the poster-child for winning in a small market, and one can only wonder what Gonzalez might do if given a reasonable amount of cash. Of course, this is as much an award for the front-office who construct the team: I'm really not certain how much influence the manager generally has. There are exceptions, however, and if any manager does affect his team, it's probably third-place finisher, Tony LaRussa. He has absolutely no hesitation in rejecting "conventional" wisdom when he feels it's in the best interests of winning, e.g. batting his pitcher eighth. If I could pick any other major-league manager to be in charge of Arizona, it'd be LaRussa. Elsewhere on the ballot, I'm not sure who voted for John Russell in Pittsburgh, for leading his team to a brilliant 62-99 record, ahead only of the Nationals. I went over to Bucs Dugout, and if it was them, they're not 'fessing up, yet... I trust it wasn't 'charmer, anyway - I'm sure she will be along a llttle later to discuss her ballot and explain her picks. I'll finish with a quick mention of the American League results, where both Ron Gardenhire of the Twins and the Angels' Mike Scioscia ended up with nine first-place votes. However, Scioscia got more X's further down the ballot, and so took the award, with Don Wakamatsu of Seattle finishing behind Gardenhire. I can't believe that almost half the voters left Gardenhire off their ballots entirely: again, we're talking about a man who has worked wonders with little or no cash, and has got to be in the running, at the very least. He'd have got my vote, certainly, though as we only get to vote for our own leagues, that's a token gesture. Here's the full results there: Rk Manager Team 1st 2nd 3rd Pts 1 Mike Scioscia Los Angeles Angels 9 8 3 72 2 Ron Gardenhire Minnesota Twins 9 5 1 61 3 Don Wakamatsu Seattle Mariners 6 3 8 47 4 Joe Girardi New York Yankees 2 4 2 24 5 Ron Washington Texas Rangers 1 4 4 21 6 Terry Francona Boston Red Sox 1 1 3 11 7 Jim Leyland Detroit Tigers - 2 4 10 8 Joe Maddon Tampa Bay Rays - 1 1 4 9 Ozzie Guillen Chicago White Sox - - 1 1 10 Trey Hillman Kansas City Royals - - 1 1   Tomorrow, we'll continue the series with the Rookie of the Year award. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates http://www.sportsnipe.com/main_sportsnews/960146/toronto-calls-off-trade-for-snyder.html The Toronto Blue Jays scotched a deal that would have sent first baseman Lyle Overbay to Arizona. Arizona Diamondbacks - Sport Snipe - Team News - Stats - Updates