Tonight was game 11/162. And, it was equally as disappointing as the last time the Dbacks fell in extra innings.

And, in the spirit of disappointment, today’s recap will also be disappointing. Here are the highlights:

1. Justin Upton sat out the game and will reportedly have an MRI on his thumb tomorrow.

2. Chris Young slammed into the CF fence making a leaping catch and had to leave the game – likely with a shoulder contusion. He will also be having an MRI tomorrow.

3. And, in the post game, Nick Piecoro reported that Kirk Gibson announced that Geoff Blum pulled a muscle in batting practice and he will  be headed to the DL and AJ Pollock is coming up from Reno.

4. In terms of baseball stuff: Ian Kennedy was immensely hittable (though, everyone is allowed a bad day now and again, so I don’t begrudge him that).

5. When Chris Young left the game, Jason Kubel moved to RF, Willie Bloomquist moved to LF and Gerardo Parra moved to CF. That put John McDonald in at SS (and, third in the batting order). He showed off his usual quick hands and – in another uncharacteristic show of offense – he blasted a game-tying home run. Which, like his two-double game in Colorado, wasn’t quite enough of a cushion for the bullpen.

6. Bryan Shaw collected the loss, giving up a 2-out infield single by the slimmest of margins to the speedy Alex Pressley. That was followed by hits from McGhee and McCutcheon and the one run that scored was the difference in the game.

7. And, the remainder of the Blue Jays reunion tour infield had a pretty good night defensively (Aaron Hill had a great pick, Ryan Roberts had a diving catch and Lyle Overbay dug a whole pile of throws out of the dirt at first). But, overall, this game was a giant bummer.

The after-effects of tonight’s mess will probably be spilling over into tomorrow. When they get to do it all over again.

Hopefully wrapped in bubble wrap.

Score: 5-6, Diamondbacks lose (ANOTHER ONE RUN GAME); Record 7-4. This one hurt. Literally and figuratively.

Conclusion: Ow.

And, it keeps raining in Colorado...

Your game recap, brought to you in the form of the starting line-up. Game 8/162.

This game snapped a 2 game losing streak and the Dbacks were able to make their early lead hold up – in spite of more of mother nature’s best efforts. The 2 competing stories of this day are Trevor Cahill’s great performance on the mound and Chris Young continuing to tear the cover off the ball.

1. Ryan Roberts (3B) – 2-for-5 on the afternoon.

2 Gerardo Parra (LF) – After a very strong showing last night, Parra got the start again in left, going 1-for-5 (with a force-out).  He scored 2 runs and collected two stolen bases on the afternoon.

3. Justin Upton (RF) – He seems to be braving a sore thumb well, going 2-for-5 with 2 runs scored.

4. Chris Young (CF) – More of the same with Chris Young. 2-for-4 with a walk, including a home run and 3 RBIs. So far, on the season, Chris Young is raking in a major way:  .364 / .475 / .818  / 1.293

5. Paul Goldschmidt (1B) – Went 1-for-4 on the day with a double. But, impressively, he seems to be more and more comfortable over at 1B every time we see him.

6. Aaron Hill (2B) – So, yeah, Aaron Hill went 1-for-2 with 2 walks and 2RBIs. That was great and all, but he also did this [click to watch the video]. He made a great running catch and then fired to first for an unconventional double play, taking advantage of a Colorado baserunning blunder.

7. John McDonald (SS) – Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to replicate his fantastic offensive game from yesterday, but as the cold rain continued to fall throughout much of this game, his sure hands in the infield with Trevor Cahill on the mound was of great value.

8. Henry Blanco (C) – He got his first start of the season (thanks to the day-game-after-the-night-game schedule). He called a solid game behind his starter today and did something he probably doesn’t do very often – reached base on an infield single.

9. Trevor Cahill (SP) – He had a much more relaxed start this time around – 7.1IP, 4H, 1R, 2BB, 6K. The only Rockie really able to figure him out was Jonathan Herrera, but nobody got further than second base. He got 12 ground ball outs and 6 strikeouts and generally was quite dazzling. Definitely the pitcher that Arizona thought they were getting – and who fit very nicely into a start at Coors Field. After he was pulled with a one-out double (to Jonathan Herrera) in the 8th (while it continued to rain/sleet/snow/etc), it was the start of the bullpen hoedown.

9b. Joe Paterson (RP) – Came in with one out in the 8th and induced a walk, a single and a force out, allowing his one runner inherited from Trevor Cahill to score.

9c. Brad Ziegler (RP) – Came in  with two outs in the 8th inning and Troy Tulowitzski promptly singled and drove in another run, sending Kirk Gibson back to his bullpen.

9d. Craig Breslow (RP) – Came in with two outs in the 8th inning and lost a 9 pitch at-bat to Jason Giambi, who took a walk.

9e. Bryan Shaw (RP) – Came in with two outs in the 8th inning, with the bases loaded and got the pinch-hitter Ramon Hernandez to end the inning with a ground ball. In reward for finally ending the 8th inning (and for being possibly the best rested member of the bullpen), he got to come out and collect the save in the 9th inning. He pitched a perfect 9th (fly out, ground out and swinging strikeout) in the elements.

Score: 5-2, Diamondbacks win (and avoid being swept by Colorado); Record 6-3. The weather – and the 8th inning – made this a lot closer than it should have been, but a win is a win and now the boys get to pack up and go back to the sun and warmth of Chase Field – or, at the very least, a roof over their heads.

Conclusion: It was wet and cold and miserable again. But the boys held on and kept this one from slipping away. 

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Victories have been hard to come by since the opening day of spring training for the Diamondbacks.

And, adding insult to injury is that the defeats have been almost epically lopsided. There are recaps and box scores to be found elsewhere, but in case you need a refresher, a reader’s digest of the (things that I found to be) important facts are as follows:

Diamondbacks (5) @ Rockies (6) – March 5

Things of note: Ryan Roberts hit his second HR in as many games against the Rockies and Gerardo Parra and Chris Owings also contributed with the long ball. The 2007 Blue Jays infield (McDonald, Hill and Overbay) showed up to play on March 5 again and, Jason Lane (who played 2011 in the Blue Jays’ minor league system) made his pitching debut (giving up an unearned run).

Thing worth forgetting: The boys went 1-for-9 with RISP and the infield made 4 errors. Ouch.

Diamondbacks (3) vs Rangers (16) – March 6

Things of note: David Winfree hit a 3-run HR and simultaneously drove in all of the Dbacks’ runs and stopped them from being on the losing end of a double-digit run scoring shutout. And, the Diamondbacks fans all breathed a sigh of relief.

Thing worth forgetting: Again, 1-for-8 with RISP and 2 errors on the day. Yonata Ortega pitched to 6 batters allowing 5 hits (1HR) and 6 runs to the tune of a 63.00 ERA.

Indians (10) @ Diamondbacks (2) – March 7

Things of note: Trevor Cahill made his first at-bat as a Diamondback and managed to put the bat on the ball (grounding out to third), and this was the game that was broadcast “live” with the players wearing microphones. The official site has a good recap here.

Things worth forgetting: The Dbacks’ pitchers combined for 3 wild pitches on the day and Tyler Skaggs pitched 2/3 of an inning where he walked 4 guys and gave up 4 earned runs via a grand slam. The offense went 0-for-7 with RISP and left 5 men on base.

All in all, there’s been an uncharacteristic number of errors, the pitchers are not going to be putting their spring training ERAs on their next résumé, and everyone appears to be very, very tired.

But, remembering (again) that spring training games don’t count for anything and pretty much exist entirely to get the pitchers’ arms loosened up for the season and that the Diamondbacks had a completely miserable spring training in 2011 (they won 13 out of 35 games in March…. a 0.371 winning percentage) and that turned out all right in the end, this is not yet the time to be overcome with a feeling of impending doom. I’m sure the team is frustrated, but it’s not time to panic yet.

So, keep the faith fans. This is only the beginning of a very long season and there’s a rest day tomorrow  (and, Kirk Gibson has indicated that he’ll possibly start to dial down the intensity of the team’s workouts) and Friday is a brand new day and anything can happen.

First things first:

You may or may not have realized that, last night, #ShoutOutToTheGirlsThat was trending on twitter.

If I haven’t mentioned yet how much I love and adore the people who write the dbacks’ twitter account, this would probably be an appropriate time.

Exhibit A:

However, that was not actually the point of today’s post. 

Gerardo Parra is all over the Dbacks’ blogosphere these days and everyone from the general manager (at the time of the trade) to the CEO (last week) to the manager (yesterday) is frantically trying to reassure the concerned members of the fanbase (myself included) who want to know what is going to happen to Gerardo Parra’s playing time next year.

As I covered in a previous post (“Why I’m Scared of Jason Kubel“), Gerardo Parra had a very good 2011. Among the many things he accomplished was a NL-leading 12 outfield assists. It’s not just the glove that should be made of gold.

Unfortunately, not all of his assists archived at mlb.com for future enjoyment, but the 4 and a half that were are well worth the time. Check ‘em out, it will be fun for you. Because who doesn’t enjoy a play at the plate and baserunning blunders?

4 and 1/2 Outfield Assists – Courtesy of Gerardo Parra

1. You don’t go for two with that arm in left, yo.  

 2. Two outs are better than one .

 3. He makes people look silly trying to score from second. Even Bonafacio, who is pretty speedy. 

4. It’s September 3. People should have learned not to run on Gerardo Parra’s left arm by this point. Especially since Beltran plays in the same division.

5.  This wasn’t a putout, but it totally would have been. Except, this time, Bonafacio decided not to run. Probably because the game was tied (unlike 1 month later, where they were losing a blowout). 

 Until tomorrow, folks!

www.flickr.com/photos/afagen/3804062924/

Going into this offseason, everyone that was asked – including the Dbacks’ CEO and team pres, Derrick Hall – said that the Diamondbacks were expecting a relatively quiet offseason.

Because, hey, if its not broken, don’t break it.

Last offseason, new GM Kevin Towers revamped a – quite frankly - scary bullpen on the cheap (highlighted by picking up a resurgent JJ Putz), extended Stephen Drew (which seemed very important at the time) and more or less filled in the rest of the holes with veteran utilitymen.

He may or may not have have become a little trigger-happy and shelled out slightly more $$$ than most people would have thrown at at people like Geoff Blum or Willie Bloomquist (who ended up playing far more than anyone would have seen coming), but he still managed to field a playoff team for a relative bargain.

 See the following chart:

(adapted from bizofbaseball.com)

He also gave the manager’s job to future NL Manager of the Year, Kirk Gibson, the team pulled off the ever elusive “Worst to First”, they had a near-NL-MVP in right field, one of the best CF in the game, a golden-glover in LF, and 20-game winner who pitched himself into the CY discussion. And they won their divsion. So all-in-all, 2011 was an unqualified success.

 Which brings us back to the 2011 hot stove.  With a little time on his hands and a little more money to spend, there seems to be money flowing in some unexpected directions.  Replacing Joe Saunders with Trevor Cahill via trade makes sense. Slightly younger, slightly cheaper, throws lots of ground balls. That should fit in well with the home run derby haven that is Chase Field.

However, the action in the outfield is where I’m having my doubts.

*often hit 8th, in front of the pitcher, which contributed to an increased IBB rate this year, so take the BB% with a grain of salt or two

Okay, so, I don’t know about y’all, but I have to say that Player B doesn’t excite me 5.8 million times more than Player A. Don’t get me wrong. I have got nothing against Jason Kubel, and the White Sox fan in me isn’t terribly upset to have him out of the AL Central, but he seems somewhat extraneous to me here on the Dbacks’ roster. For the money, he doesn’t seem to offer a huge offensive upgrade to a younger, cheaper alternative (who is getting better yearly), who is also a golden glove outfielder. Particularly since both Jason Kubel and Gerardo Parra hit from the same side, and neither has an obvious platoon split.

I am probably more partial to Gerardo Parra than he may even deserve (I can be won over by a great diving play or an outfield assist any day of the week. I’m easy.), but I’m just not buying what Kevin Towers is selling with this acquisition. I’m not sure I want Gerardo Parra relegated to a 4th outfielder role.

I hope I’m wrong, and that this works out for everyone, but I’m also worried that someone gave Kevin Towers a little too much money and a little too much free reign. I hope that the Jason Kubel signing isn’t the start of a trend and that there’s not more where this came from. But, even if that’s the end of the action, I think this off season might have been a little too loud for me.

(Coming soon, a love letter to Gerardo Parra. It seems appropriate.)