I’ve decided on losing nights – especially in the middle of a 5 game losing streak – I’m going to do 3 things. Because, baseball is supposed to be fun, and dwelling on the negative doesn’t make baseball very much fun at all. So, here we go. On losing nights, I’m going to:

1. Limit the number of negative things I say to 3 or less.
• The team was 0-for4 with runners in scoring position.
• Team batting line: 2 runs on 5 hits; 1 walk and 13 strikeouts (including 6 consecutive to end the game)
• Essentially, the offense is still lacking an identity at the moment.
2. Come up with at least 5 positive things to say.
• Miguel Montero caught Michael Bourne stealing – raising his caught stealing percentage to 44% on the young season.
• Even though he got saddled with the loss today, Joe Saunders pitched a very solid game once he settled down. It was a quality start: 7.0 innings, 6H, 3R(2ER), 1BB and 5K. Four of his 6 hits and his only walk came in the first 2 innings. Unfortunately, the three runs that crossed the plate in the first three innings turned out to be an insurmountable challenge. He’s now 1-1 on the season with a 1.29 ERA on the season and  Diamondbacks fans should be very happy that he took a hometown discount to play for the Diamondbacks in 2012.
• David Hernandez: 3 batters face, 3 strikeouts. He was dazzling.
• Justin Upton was back in the lineup and he looked good. He went 1-for-4 and we hope that he still feels okay tomorrow morning.
• Jason Kubel has definitely started looking more comfortable at the plate. In the last 7 days, he’s hitting .313, with 3BB, 6H (a 2B and a HR), and 3RBI. Welcome to Arizona, Mr. Kubel.
3. Post a link to a randomly chosen youtube video. Tonight, we are going to listen to Jerry Seinfeld discuss SCUBA diving.

Score: 3-2, Diamondbacks lose (more one run games!); Record 7-8.

Conclusion: The rough patch continues. Hopefully the boys get off the skid soon. The season’s still very young and there’s a lot of time left, but baseball is more fun when there’s winning.

I am accepting any and all suggestions for future youtube videos to post during future loss posts. Hit me up here in the comments or via twitter (@mlbfangirl).

And, in case you missed it earlier, there’s a poll in the sidebar. Click HERE to read the post and cast your vote!

Your game recap, game 10/162. Back to the desert where, thankfully, the Dbacks finally got to play a game where it wasn’t snowing. Or raining. Or sleeting.

Gerardo Parra's home run went for a swim in the RF pool

1. Willie Bloomquist (SS) – He’s played 7 games this season with 8 hits, at a pace of slightly more than a hit per game. None of those hits came today as he went 0-for-the day following his 2 days of rest while John McDonald manned shortstop.

2. Aaron Hill (2B) – Again, the 2-hole seems to be magical. Aaron Hill launched a home run in the bottom of the first to even the score at 1-1.  He’s 7-for-34 this season, but he’s managed to keep his quad slash line very respectable, with his combination of power and plate discipline. 0.206 / .325 / .500 / .825 He also made a fantastic diving play in the top of the 9th. In fact, it was so impressive that when MLB.com posted the video, they got a bit ahead of themselves and called it the game-winning play, even though it was they first out of the 9th.

3. Justin Upton (RF) – He still seems to be having trouble finding his swing. It’ll come.

4. Miguel Montero (C) – 1-for-4 with a hit and a run scored and threw out the speedy Alex Presley attempting to steal 2nd; raising his season total to 3/5 potential base thieves.

5. Chris Young (CF) – There is nothing more to say about the amazing run that Chris Young is on. 3-for-4 on the night with 2 singles and a HR that led to 2 RBI. And, without further comment, I will present his quadruple slash line: .405 / .500 / .892 / 1.392

6. Paul Goldschmidt (1B) – He continues to show glimmers of plate discipline, going 1-for-3 with a walk. He’s still got a K/BB rate of 10/3, but its early and something to keep an eye on as the season progresses.

7. Jason Kubel (LF) – Still having a bit of trouble getting his rhythm as a Dback, he went 0-for-1 and walked twice before he was replaced with Gerardo Parra.

7b. David Hernandez (RP) – Pitched a solid 8th, 2Ks and 0 hits. And, was clearly glad to be back in the sun.

7c. Geoff Blum (PH) – Collected his first PH hit of the season in the 8th inning when he hit for David Hernandez.

7d. Brad Ziegler (RP) – Pitched a scoreless 9th, given a 5-1 lead. He was a little wild, but had one K, 2 groundouts and a walk in his inning of work, sealing the deal.

8. Ryan Roberts (3B) – 1-for-4 with an RBI and had a great at-bat in the 8th, eventually losing a 7-pitch battle, but he put up a heck of a fight. He also made some noteworthy plays in the field.

9.  Joe Saunders (SP) – He was the story of the game. At first, he didn’t seem to have his control, but he settled in nicely and ended up with a final line of 7IP, 6H, 1R, 2BB, 5K. He lowered his season ERA to 0.64 and collected his second quality start of the season. And, looked very smooth doing it. So far, so good for Bazooka Joe.

9b. Gerardo Parra (PH – LF) – Pinch hit for Joe Saunders in the bottom of the 7th and homered a 91 mph first pitch fastball into the pool [video here]. He then replaced Jason Kubel in left field. The outfield situation continues to get muddy, with Justin Upton continuing to play with a sore thumb and Kubel’s slow start. Right now, Gerardo Parra is a huge luxury for Kirk Gibson.

And, in other news, Stephen Drew worked out with the team today [click to watch the video].

Score: 5-1, Diamondbacks win; Record 7-3. The sun was shining and the bats came alive in support of a stellar effort (again) by Joe Saunders.

Conclusion: There’s no place like home.

Willie Bloomquist (photo credit: Mark Winograd)

Your game recap, brought to you in the form of the starting line-up. Game 5/162. Where the only offense was no offense at all. Tonight, the team was 0-for8 with runners in scoring position and collected 10 strikeouts on the night. The bats were bound to go silent at some point, and a pitcher’s park is probably the place for it to happen. Unfortunately, Joe Saunders had to suffer a heartbreaking loss.

1. Willie Bloomquist (SS) – Willie extended his hitting streak to 11 games this evening. And, in the process of doing so, he single-handedly provided enough ammunition to convince everyone watching that expanding the use of instant replay would be a bad idea. At the top of the 2nd inning, Willie hit a LOOOOOONG triple that bounced off the top of the wall and required at least 5 minutes of video review before the umpiring crew decided (correctly) that it was not a home run. 2-for-4 with 1BB and 1K.

2. Aaron Hill (2B) – Part of the offensive drought: 0-for-5.

3. Justin Upton (RF) - Part of the offensive drought: 0-for-3 with 2BB.

4. Miguel Montero (C) - Part of the offensive drought: 0-for-4 with 3K.

5. Chris Young (CF) - Part of the offensive drought: 1-for-2 with 2BB. Only a partial culprit. His personal highlight came in the 8th inning when he lost his glove over the wall, trying to rob the game-winning home run (video: here)

6. Jason Kubel (LF) – He worked a bases-loaded walk in the first inning to collect an RBI (in name only). He then followed that up with one of his better offensive performances in a Diamondbacks’ uniform. 2-for-3 with a walk and 0K.

7b. Gerardo Parra (LF) – Defensive replacement in the bottom of the 8th inning.

7. Paul Goldschmidt (1B) - Part of the offensive drought: 0-for-4 with 2K.

8. Ryan Roberts (3B) - Part of the offensive drought: 0-for-3, 1BB, 1K.

9. Joe Saunders (P) – Continued to own the Padres, as he did in 2011 when his ERA was 1.47. His final line on the night was 7.0IP, 4H, 0R, 2BB, 4K. Job well done. Unfortunately, it couldn’t stick.

9b. Geoff Blum (PH) – A strikeout in his only plate appearance.

9. David Hernandez (RP) – The usually-invincible 8th inning guy gave up a leadoff walk to Cameron Maybin and Chris Denorfia hammered a pitch over the centerfield wall and gave the Padres a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the 8th inning.

Score: 2-1, Diamondbacks lose. It had to happen sometime; Record 4-1.

Conclusion: The only offense of the night came on a bases-loaded walk by Jason Kubel. A win here would have been almost a miracle . 

Inspired by the lack of variety on the lists of the all time leaders in both hitting and pitching, I decided that I would construct a list of the “also-rans” (second place finishers) and the “active leaders” (leaders among the current Diamondbacks). Again, you’ll see that the top spot in many categories is highly predictable as well as highly repetitive.

We covered hitting a few days ago. Today, we’ll tackle the pitching leaders.

Remembering that this this team is young (not only, as I pointed out in the last post – this franchise isn’t even old enough to drink), but this is particularly true where the pitching is concerned. Pretty much every one of the “active leaders” fall into the category of “small sample size”.

There is no one on the Diamondbacks pitching staff (last year’s 25-man roster) that was wearing a Dbacks’ uniform before 2010.

But, it’s still fun to see where the current Dbacks sit in the grand scheme of things.

• Games Played — Jose Valverde (2003-2007) – 253
• Also ran: Byung-Hyun Kim  (1999-2003) – 245
• Active leader: David Hernandez (2011-2012) – 74
• Noteworthy: This is a very young team.
• Innings Pitched / Games Started - Randy Johnson (1999-2004, 2007-2008) – 1630.1 // 232
•  Also ran: Brandon Webb (2003-2009) – 1319.2 // 198
• Active leader: Ian Kennedy (2010-2011) -  416.1 // 65
• Noteworthy: Again, this is a very young team.
• Wins – Randy Johnson - 118
• Also ran: Brandon Webb – 87
• Active leader: Ian Kennedy – 30
• Noteworthy: Yes, everyone is aware that analysis of wins and losses leads to crappy analysis.
• Losses – Randy Johnson – 62
• Also ran: Brandon Webb – 62
• Active leader: Joe Saunders (2011) - 20
• Noteworthy: Randy Johnson and Brandon Webb lost the same number of games. Randy Johnson won a couple more. He also started a few more, as well. Just sayin’.
• ERA – Randy Johnson  – 2.83
• Also ran: Daniel Hudson (2010-2011) – 3.01
• Active leader: Daniel Hudson – see above
• Noteworthy: Third place of all time goes to Curt Schilling. Who has just missed appearing in each of the above categories.
• Saves – Jose Valverde - 98
• Also ran: Matt Mantei (2000-2004) – 74
• Active leader: JJ Putz (2011) – 45
• Noteworthy: JJ Putz’s 45 saves puts him fourth on the all-time franchise saves list. He does have some way to go to catch the pitcher in the third spot, Byung-Hyun Kim, who has 70.
• WHIP – Curt Schilling (2000-2003) – 1.04
• Also ran: Randy Johnson – 1.07
• Active leader: Daniel Hudson – 1.11
• Complete Games – Randy Johnson – 38
• Also ran: Curt Schilling – 18
• Active leader: Daniel Hudson – 3
• Shutouts – Randy Johnson – 14
• Also ran: Brandon Webb – 8
• Active leader: Ian Kennedy – 1
• Holds – Tony Pena (2006-2008) – 63
• Also ran: Brandon Lyon (2005-2008) – 63
• Active leader: David Hernandez – 23
• Double Plays – Brandon Webb – 140
• Also ran: Randy Johnson – 88
• Active leader: Joe Saunders – 38
• Noteworthy: Joe Saunders ended up 7th on the all-time list. This is noteworthy in that every one of the 6 pitchers above him faced at least 2200 more batters than he did. Ground ball pitchers are a very good thing for hitters’ parks.

And, now you know.

So, as you may or may not remember from a previous post, the annual Subway FanFest is scheduled for February 11 (more info at dbacks.com).

This was the list of players that were originally scheduled to attend: Willie Bloomquist, Geoff Blum, Craig Breslow, Sam Demel, Stephen Drew, David Hernandez, Aaron Hill, Daniel Hudson, Jason Kubel, John McDonald, Wade Miley, Joe Paterson, J.J. Putz, Ryan Roberts, Bryan Shaw, Justin Upton, Chris Young and Brad Ziegler.

This is the current list looks slightly different. Yesterday afternoon, a grassroots movement took hold on twitter, with a number of followers of Barry Enright on twitter decided to stage a protest of the fact that Enright was not on the original list.

Now, whether it was a direct result of the efforts of some dedicated fans, or the beneficiary of some good timing, it worked.

For an updated list of who is going to be at FanFest and the activities that are going to be there throughout the afternoon, check out the official site.

Barry Enright, a 2nd round draft pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2007, has a number of qualities that are fairly typical of an Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher. He’s red-bearded, owns a career MiLB batting average of .326 and MLB avg of .222 (adding him to the group of #PitchersWhoRake) and is active on twitter (@BarryEnright54), interacting with fans and teammates. If you follow the Dbacks, he should definitely be on your list.

Good job, Diamondbacks fans. Mission accomplished. Looks like another score for the power of twitter.

If you’re looking for another mission or two to help out with while you wait for baseball season to kick into gear, there are (at least) two other Dbacks on twitter who have been promoting their charities and would probably be grateful for any exposure and/or time and/or help that you have to spare.

» Continue reading “Diamondbacks FanFest Update. And: How To Use Your Powers For Good.”

According to Steve Henson, Joe Saunders is returning to the Diamondbacks.

In my last post, discussing the lack of a 5th starter in Arizona, I mentioned that it was highly unlikely that one of the “kids” was breaking camp as the 5th guy.

Apparently, Kevin Towers agreed with me.

This comes sort of out of nowhere, with the Dbacks at maximum payroll and missing out on Bartolo Colon (potentially for monetary reasons) and boom! Here we are today.

Saunders was a solid part of the rotation last year, pitching 212 innings for the Dbacks in 2011 (and he pitched 203 between Arizona and the Angles in 2010). His 33 games started was good for 4th in the NL last year.

He has a career ERA of 4.16, but had his 2nd best ERA last year at 3.69 (his best coming in his 2008 All-Star season for the LAA). Some of his other numbers (K/9, BB/9, WHIP, etc…) aren’t as pretty, but he’s very durable and dependable and both Bill James and RotoChamp (via fangraphs) project him to have a year comparable to his previous years (though, not as good as last year). And, frankly, 200 innings of  4.1 ERA baseball isn’t something to take for granted.

Jon Heyman has reported that the deal is for $6MM, which is $2.7M less than he was possibly going to get if he had been tendered a contract and had gone through arbitration. It also means that he’s more likely to be paid for a season that more closely resembles his career average than last year’s somewhat anomalous good season.

If he performs to his career standard, he’s being paid appropriately, and if he repeats last year, he’s a bit of a bargain. Saving money is a recipe for success in a small market team, so as a fan, its hard not to like that.

Unless you’re a Dbacks rookie. You were probably much more excited for spring training when that job was available.

Certainly, no one was trying to drive him out of town at the end of last season, the value of a veteran pitcher in a room of young guys can’t be overlooked, and it seems that he’s coming back at what appears to be a relative bargain.

So… I’m cool with it. I’m sure Kevin Towers is glad about that.

(Also, no post yesterday, partially because I had to work about a bazillion hours and partially because I was busy guest-hosting at The Pulse in preparation for Tune In Tuesday. Fortunately, the boys in Arizona waited until today to decide to do something important.)