Sedona Red Fireworks: Because winning is fun.

There are hits! And runs! Lots and lots of hits and runs!

Yes, the Dbacks had 16 hits. And, yes, they scored 9 runs. (Check out the Box Score: HERE)

But, the story of the night was  - without a doubt – Wade Miley.

1. Going into the game, the line-up looked highly similar to last night. But, when it is the line-up that stops a depressing losing streak, it isn’t a surprise that Kirk Gibson didn’t want to mess with it.

2. The offense showed up – big time. Jason Kubel and John McDonald (yes, that John McDonald) both went 3-for-4 on the day. Both Justin Upton and Jason Kubel hit solo-HRs. And, every one of the starters reached base by hit or walk tonight.

3. Speaking of Jason Kubel – Yes, he occasionally takes slightly less-than-efficient routes to balls hit to left field, but he’s shown a surprisingly a strong arm in the outfield. He recorded his 4th assist of the season, firing a one-hopper to home plate, to save a run. He’s tied for the NL lead in assists. Jason Kubel: More than just a bat standing in left field.

4. Not insignificantly, that play at the plate also illustrated that Miguel Montero is, in fact, an immoveable force. Wow.

5. Jonathan Albaladejo (called up from Reno in place of Daniel Hudson) made his Dbacks debut and was solid. 1 innings, 2 hits, no runs. As was Brad Ziegler: 1 inning, 1 hit, no runs. And, coming in for the final three outs of the ninth, so was Craig Breslow (who has pitched 8.1 innings in relief so far this season, tied with David Hernandez for the most number of innings pitched by a reliever who is not Wade Miley).

6. Joe Paterson. He’s had a very shaky 2012. He was solid as solid can be in 2011, but 2012 has been very, very rough (screencap from: here). He came in to start the 9th. He faced 5 batters: single, double, single, home run, home run. The numbers speak for themselves. This was a good game, and there has been so much negative lately, that we’re going to stick with focusing on the positives.

7. And, speaking of positives: Wade Miley. What else can you say about Wade Miley? He’s made a career acting as the stunt double for Josh Collmenter (c/o @dbacksbooth for the appropriate description) this season. He has saved the Dbacks on more than one occasion and tonight, when called upon to spot start because of Daniel Hudson going down…. The Dbacks are treated to this: 6.0 IP, 2H, 1BB, 7K. He was – again – sensational. This win is completely on him.

Score: 9-5, Diamondbacks win! Record 9-8. It’s (almost) all good in the hood.

Conclusion: This was a very fun 8 innings of baseball. For the second day in a row, it was a good day at Chase Field. 

Josh Collmenter (image c/o: Mark Winograd)

There was a brief delay to start this game, and then the rains continued to fall. The umpiring crew was clearly trying to force this game into “official game” territory, but had to give it up after 4 innings. When sure-handed Johnny Mac and gold glover Gerardo Parra are completely butchering plays they’d make every other day of the week and twice on Sunday, you know it was getting  a bit ridiculous.

However, there are 4 innings of baseball before a 1 hour and 11 minute delay and post-delay baseball (in the same pouring rain) to talk about, so here we go! Game 8/162.

1. Ryan Roberts (3B) – Back at his usual spot at 3B, he singled to start the game and drew a walk in his second at-bat. He reached on a force-out following the rain delay, but he continued to make solid contact.

2. Gerardo Parra (LF) – Getting the start in LF, he promptly singled immediately following Ryan Roberts’ leadoff single. He then got picked off of second base to end the inning. Following the rain delay, he hit yet another single to left field (his third in as many at-bats). In the 8th, he put down a beautiful bunt up the first base line, executing a safety squeeze and increasing the lead to 7-5.

3. Justin Upton (RF) – Struck out in both of his first two at-bats before the rain delay, leaving 4 men on base.

4. Miguel Montero (C) – Struck out on a pitch he didn’t like and walked. But, following the rain delay, he worked the count and blasted a 2-out, 3-run HR over the right/CF wall. The 2 potential double-plays that were broken up immediately prior to his at-bat loomed huge, as the deficit was cut from 5-1 to 5-4 with one swing of the bat.

5. Chris Young (CF) – Again, he continues to be on fire, driving home the game’s first run in the top of the first. Unfortunately, he popped out with the bases loaded and two outs in the 3rd inning, but he was only hitting around .400 and not 1.000 at the time, so it wasn’t entirely unexpected. He ended up going 2-for-4 with an RBI on the night. When you’re hot, you’re hot. And, Chris Young is still on fire.

6. Lyle Overbay (1B) – 0-for-2 with a strikeout going into the rain delay, he at least avoided leaving any runners on base.

6b. Paul Goldschmidt (PH-1B) – In the 7th inning, he pinch-hit for Lyle Overbay and lifted a sac fly into shallow RF. It was played really well by Michael Cuddyer, but Justin Upton charged hard and beat the throw, giving the Diamondbacks the lead for the first time in the ballgame. 6-5 Dbacks.

7. Aaron Hill (2B) – Unfortunately, he was part of the baserunning blunders prior to the rain delay and was thrown out (by a mile) attempting to steal second base in the second inning (as part of a strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out) after he walked in the second. He had some fleet-footed base-running following the rain delay to avoid a tag in the top of the 6th.

8. John McDonald (SS) – As per usual, not much was happening with the bat, but he made a couple of good plays (and, one that skidded off his wet and cold glove) before the rain delay. However, after the delay, Johnny Mac ripped his first hit of the year into left field and drove in Aaron Hill in the 6th to tie the game at 5-5. And, got his second hit of the season – another double, this one leading off the 8th inning, allowing him to be standing on third for Gerardo Parra to execute a safety squeeze.

9. Josh Collmenter (SP) – As in his last start, he never really settled in – leaving a lot of stuff up and over the plate and the Rockies took advantage – and making at least one fielding miscue. Going into the rain delay: 4.0 IP, 5H, 5R, 3BB, 3K, 2HR. It was a start where many people in the Diamondbacks baseball fandom were considering that Josh Collmenter was pitching for his spot in the rotation. But, after a solid year last year – including a post-season win – its unclear how long of a leash he really has at this point. It is highly possible that Josh Collmenter isn’t going anywhere for a good long while. But, if the pulse of the fandom is correct and he really was pitching to save his spot in the starting 5, he certainly didn’t do himself any favors tonight.

9b. Geoff Blum (PH) – Pinch hit for the pitcher (as he does) and took a lead off walk following the rain delay and broke up a double-play with a “I have been playing baseball longer than you have” hard slide into second base when Ryan Roberts grounded to the shortstop. (And, in the following at-bat, Gerardo Parra did exactly the same thing to break up another potential double play).

9c. Wade Miley (RP) – Carving a bit of a niche coming out in long relief of Josh Collmenter, he got 2 quick outs before giving up a triple to Michael Cuddyer. He made a couple of great plays in his first inning of relief, backing up a wayward throw to third on Cuddyer’s triple (he would have scored) and then covering first on a Tyler Colvin grounder. And, just like the last time he came in in long relief of Collmenter, he kept the opposing team at bay, pitching 3.0 innings of 2H, 1BB baseball. And, in the bottom of the 7th, he executed a swinging bunt for an infield single, in his quest to make himself indispensable to this team. Something that is going to create a bit of a situation when Saito is activated off of the DL.

9d. David Hernandez (RP) – Came in for his traditional 8th inning appearance. Unfortunately, he gave up a run, cutting a 7-5 deficit down to 7-6 going into the 9th inning.

9e. JJ Putz (CL) – Came in with the pouring rain. Let loose and hit Marco Scutaro. In conditions where no one can see and it was 38 degrees, this is not surprising. Unfortunately, that put the tying run on base. So, when Todd Helton laced a HR barely inside the RF foul pole, the Rockies walked off with the win.

Score: 8-7, Diamondbacks lose (and lose their first series to Colorado since 2010); Record 5-3. They got our hopes up, but man. That was a major letdown. But, with baseball, there’s always tomorrow. Hopefully, the sun will come out tomorrow.

Conclusion: It was wet and cold and miserable in Colorado. And, the weather was pretty terrible, too.

And, in case you missed it earlier, we have a shiny new feature here on the blog: THE 2012 HBP-o-METER. 

image from flickr user: paul hadsall (flickr.com/photos/paulhadsall/4854585169/)

Your game recap, brought to you in the form of the starting line-up. Game 7/162. Unfortunately, this game turned into the bullpen olympics, which is not something you want for the first game of the series. There was a lot of hitting in this game, but in what has becoming a recurring theme, the timely hitting wasn’t there.

In the 4th inning, the boys ended up with runners on second and third and nobody out and they couldn’t get any of the runs across.

The team went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left 9 men on base as a team. Individually, the hitters left 17 men on base and, unfortunately, they fell just shy of being able to keep step with the Rockies.

It was a cold night, the team is tired from their late getaway day and hopefully things look better in the morning.

1. Willie Bloomquist (SS) – Snapped his hitting streak by going 0-for-5 on the night.

2. Jason Kubel (LF) – 1-for-5 with three strikeouts.

3. Justin Upton (RF) – 2-for-4 with a walk. Notably, he bunted for a base hit. With his hand still hurting, this was a stroke of brilliance. When you run like him and no one is expecting it, it works. Also, there was a misplay of a flyball in the 3rd inning which led

4. Miguel Montero (C) – 2-for-4 with a walk. Hit a long homerun and hopefully this will be able to get him into the groove for the season.

5. Chris Young (CF) – 0-for-3 with 2 walks.

6. Paul Goldschmidt (1B) – 2-for-5 with one strikeout. Unfortunately, he made a catching error on an attempted pickoff move which allowed Tulowitzski to move from 1st to 3rd and score the unearned run that was the difference in this game.

7. Geoff Blum (3B) – 0-for-3 with one strikeout.

8. Ryan Roberts (2B) – 1-for-3 with a walk.

9. Daniel Hudson (P) – In probably the story of the night, this is not a performance that Daniel Hudson is going to be replaying again. 3.2 IP, 10H, 6R, 3BB, 3K, 2HR. His command was all over the place and he just never seemed to settle in.

9b. Brad Ziegler (RP) – Came in and pitched an inning and a third and, taking one for the team actually had to bat for himself and didn’t do too badly for a relief pitcher from the american league in – to the best that I can discover – his first plate appearance in his MLB career.

9c. Craig Breslow (RP) – Came in and pitched 2 innings of 1-hit, 2-walk ball and kept the Rockies at bay.

9d. Aaron Hill (PH) – Pinch hitter for Craig Breslow and went 1-for-1 on the day.

9e. Bryan Shaw (RP) – Took the loss in this battle for pitching the 8th inning. His record falls to 0-1 on the year, with an ERA of 0.00. Unfortunately, following a one-out single by Carlos Gonzalez, an attempted pick-off ended up with CarGo ending up on third and he scored on a ground-rule double. A hard luck loss on an unearned run.

Score: 7-6, Diamondbacks lose; Record 5-2

Conclusion: After struggling to produce runs in San Diego, the runs were plentiful – but for both teams. So far this season, each game has been decided by 2 runs or less. When the margin for error is so tiny, you’re really living on the edge.

image by flickr user - BaseballBacks (flickr.com/photos/baseball-backs/6081656674/)

Your game recap, brought to you in the form of the starting line-up. Game 2/162

1. Ryan Roberts (3B) – He was 0-for-3 in his first few plate appearances and eventually singled in the bottom of the 6th and made a wicked slide into 2nd to try to break up the double play that immediately followed. He wasn’t successful, but the effort was appreciated.

2. Aaron Hill (2B) – Homered in the first inning (solo HR) and then again in the 2nd (this time, Daniel Hudson was on base as well). 3 RBIs. 2-for-4 with 2 home runs… exactly the number he wears on his back.

3. Justin Upton (RF) – A good day offensively and defensively for the Dbacks’ 2011 MVP. 1-for-3 with a run scored and a walk.

4. Miguel Montero (C) – Wearing a microphone, it was a treat to listen to him make fun of Aaron Hill’s lack of height following his first homerun. And, poking Madison Bumgarner when he came to bat – “Don’t worry, it’s a long season.” (ie: Yes, we’re lighting you up.) Going from first to second on wild pitch is probably not something we’ll see too often from Miguel Montero. Because, while he is a very good catcher, he is still a catcher. And, he runs like one.

5. Chris Young (CF) – Doubled in the bottom of the first to drive in the 4th run of the game. Doubled in the bottom of the 5th to drive in a second run. 2RBI. He was drilled on the right hand in the bottom of the 7th. Between today and Miguel Montero being hit yesterday, this is not helping ease tensions between the Dbacks and the Giants.

6. Paul Goldschmidt (1B) – He got a little respect in the bottom of the first when he was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out to bring up Jason Kubel.

7. Jason Kubel (LF) – Showed why he’s an “offensive weapon” in the top of the 4th. I try to be positive around here, so I will say this once and then not say it again – Gerardo Parra would have made that catch off of Aubrey Huff in the top of the 4th. 0-for-3 with an intentional BB on the day. I’m willing to be that he’s had better days. Many of which, I hope, are still ahead of him in Sedona red.

7b. David Hernandez (RP) – Double switch. The pitcher’s spot was due up. He might as well go ahead and scribble his name in sharpie in the 8th inning. He continues to be a rock star.

7c. JJ Putz (RP) – Two 5-pitch at-bats ending with a swinging 3rd strike on his splitter. And, then a grounder and a footrace to first base between JJ Putz and Brandon Crawford. Thunderstruck.

8. John McDonald (SS) – Johnny Mac can play baseball. Watching him run out to left field to cover Jason Kubel is a thing of beauty. He also made a (another) sparkling play, causing everyone watching to remember why he has a job – an important one. When they walked Jason Kubel intentionally with 2 outs to bring him to the plate, he nearly was able to put a ball through the middle, but for a pretty excellent play by Crawford that for a force out of Kubel at 2nd (though, it was a nice, hard slide by Kubel in an attempt to force an error from Crawford).

9. Daniel Hudson (P) – Started off the day 2-for-2 (1 LOOOOONG and 1 regular single), tossing his hat into the ring early for a Silver Slugger repeat. In his third at-bat, he smashed a liner back to the pitcher and hustled his way up the first base line and nearly beat the throw. #PitchersWhoRake: Live it, learn it, love it. He had a really good game going, until he was pulled at 97-pitches following 6 2/3 innings: 5H, 4R(ER), 2BB, 4K and 2HR. It was the long-ball that did him in today, but overall he looked really good. Its the difference of a few bad pitches, but they were ill-timed.

9b. Bryan Shaw (RP) – He came in with 2 outs in the 7th (immediately following the Brett Pill home run) to get Angel Pagan. Mission accomplished.

9c. Gerardo Parra (LF) – Double switch. Came in (for the second day in a row) as a defensive replacement (in the 8th inning) – to a rather warm reception. Flew out to CF in the bottom of the 8th. It will be something to watch and see what happens to his batting average, coming off the bench. He may require a period of adjustment.

Score: 5-4, Diamondbacks win; Record 2-0 (Hit by pitch counter = 2)

Conclusion: With 2 homeruns, maybe Aaron Hill should consider changing his jersey number… let’s start with 3.

Ryan Roberts - image credit: Mark Winograd (WikiCommons)

1. Willie Bloomquist (SS) – In the lead-off spot had the first hit of the game in the bottom of the 1st. He also got on base again in the 7th with another single and was caught leaning the wrong way and picked off first by Guillermo Mota. Interestingly, there was a slo-mo analysis later in the inning that analyzed Mota’s pick-off move and, well, let’s just say that he’s going to have to be careful about who’s officiating when he pitches. That pick-off could have just as easily turned into a balk.

2. Chris Young (CF) – Batting in the second spot for the… first time under Kirk Gibson (he didn’t even play there during spring training) and only the second time in his career. He went 1-4, but he made it count. A long, 2-run home run in the top of the first. It might not be the last time we see CY in the 2-hole.

3. Justin Upton (RF) – 1-for-3 with a run scored, a walk and a strikeout. But, like Chris Young, he made it count. He ripped a ball into the LF corner that hopped into the crowd for a ground-rule double.

4. Miguel Montero (C) – 1-for-3 with a strikeout and a hit-by-pitch. That’s not going to do anything to calm the waters with an already heated rivalry. With Daniel Hudson pitching tomorrow, it’s probably for the best that Affeldt doesn’t come to bat.

5. Paul Goldschmidt (1B) – Number 5 agrees with him. In the first inning, he dealt the second big blow with a monster of a home run to LF. He went 1-for-3 with a walk, an RBI, and 2 runs scored. Good day.

6. Jason Kubel (LF) – He ended up going 0-for-3 on the night. He reached on an error (one of three by the Giants on the day) and had one strikeout. He was only really tested once in the field and it wasn’t a smooth play, but fortunately, even though Melky Cabrera ended up with a double, he didn’t come around to score.

6b. Gerardo Parra (LF) – As promised, Parra did make it into the game in the top of the 7th. He only had one ball hit his way – a routine grounder – and had one at-bat (a routine groundout). We’ll be seeing more of him in the next couple of days, I don’t doubt it.

7. Ryan Roberts (3B) – I made a joke on twitter that people should just start walking Ryan Roberts intentionally when he comes up with the bases loaded. And, it is a little hard to talk about a player being clutch. But, if anyone is clutch, its Ryan Roberts.

• With the bases loaded (15PA): 462 / .533 / .846 /1.379
• In the post-season (20PA): .350 / .350 / .700 / 1.050
• With a runner on third and 2 out (18PA): .400 / .500 / .867 / 1.367
• And, “late and close” (89PA): .347 / .455 / .542 / .996

And, he did it again tonight. He ground out and struck out in his first two at bats. But, when he came to bat with the bases loaded in a tie game in the bottom of the 6th, he picked a very good time for his first hit of the game. He went 1-for-4 (but reached on an error later in the game), but he was clutch tonight. And, as we saw at the end of this game, the Dbacks don’t win this game without him and his 2-RBI double.

8. Aaron Hill (2B) – Twice tonight (once on a throw from Justin Upton from RF and once while he was covering second), Aaron Hill had to practically levitate horizontally to stretch out and make a catch and save some runs. He may have gone 0-for-4, but he definitely saved a couple of runs in the 6th inning.

9. Ian Kennedy (P) – IPK wasn’t at his best today, but he harnessed it in and was able to pitch well enough to collect the W. 6.2IP, 9H, 3R/ER, 2B, 3K, 1HR. And, when you can collect your win, even when you’re not at your best, you must be doing something right.

9b. Joe Paterson (RP) – Joe Paterson came in with 2 outs, runners on first and second, and collected his first hold of the season after a 9 pitch duel with Aubrey Huff.

9c.David Hernandez (RP) – He owned the 8th inning last year and he owned it again tonight. He threw 9 pitches and collected 2 strikeouts and his curveball probably had more than a few people cursing on the San Francisco side of the field. And, its nice to see that the recent arrival of his second child might be keeping him up at night, but he hasn’t lost his edge.

9d. Geoff Blum (PH) – a brief pinch-hit strikeout in the 8th inning, but we’ll see more from him.

9e. JJ Putz (CL) – He came in in the 9th inning and made it more interesting than some Dbacks fans might have liked. He gave up 2 hits, 1 run, but closed it out, collected the save and started the Diamondbacks’ season off with a win and there’s no reason to complain.

Score: 6-5, Diamondbacks win; Record 1-0

Conclusion: Ryan Roberts – still clutch in 2012.

And, now we do it again tomorrow! See you then.

I’m not a baseball executive, I have never been a baseball executive, and – barring an event of cataclysmic proportions – I will never be a baseball executive.

However, that being said, I feel like there is something a’brewing in Arizona.

Earlier this off-season, the Diamondbacks claimed Craig Tatum off of waivers. When it happened, it was considered an all-around good move, given that the Diamondbacks have almost no organizational depth at catcher.

Earlier this morning, Ken Rosenthal‘s column addressed some of the rumors floating around during spring training. The end of his column focused quite heavily on the Diamondbacks.

The D-Backs seek a long-term solution at catcher — Miguel Montero is a free agent after this season, and the team is thin at the position in the minors. Club officials have targeted 10 to 15 potential trade candidates, and eventually could use their relative surplus of starting pitching to acquire the catcher they need.

It is true. The Dbacks have a full rotation and a whole pile of pitchers in the minor leagues that are very nearly (or entirely) ready to step into the rotation on a moment’s notice. And, this holds true looking at the prospect rankings, where it is clear that the Dbacks have strength in pitching. So, how about catchers? Is the outlook that thin?

• In mlb.com‘s top 20 prospect rankings, clocking in at number 9 is Michael Perez. Michael Perez was drafted in 2011 and is 19 years old and clearly not major league ready, having played only 7 games in the rookie league this past year.  After that, there’s not another catcher on the list.
• Fangraphs tosses in 22-year old Rossmel Perez onto their list at #15, giving Michael Perez an honorable mention.
• Baseball Prospectus, however, lists their top 20 and leaves both catchers off the list entirely.

So, yeah. There really doesn’t appear to be much in the way of organizational depth when it comes to catchers to replace Miguel Montero, if he leaves for more money at the end of the season.

So, today’s afternoon news comes as a little bit of a surprise.

Not that he was going to be a long-term solution, but it is true. Every organization needs a 3rd catcher, waiting in the wings. It’s part of any truly comprehensive emergency contingency plan. It’s a small thing, but it is an important thing.

So, when taking into account that the Diamondbacks’ cups runneth over with quality young, controllable pitching + the Diamondbacks have a seemingly large gap in their system at catcher + there isn’t really a ready and waiting candidate in the event that either Miguel Montero or Henry Blanco go down with an injury, it seems like there might be something in the works for the Diamondbacks. More specifically, something involving a young, controllable catcher no more than a year away. Or, more likely, with a little bit of MLB experience under his belt.

And, recent comments made by Kirk Gibson don’t really do anything to quell these thoughts that are swirling around in my head.

Spurred on by the suggestion that Patrick Corbin (see yesterday’s post) could spend the start of the year back in the minor leagues (article from mlb.com):

“You’re assuming that’s where he’s going. There are some things that still could happen. There’s various things that could happen.”

So. There’s that.

There’s no specific deadline that the Dbacks have to adhere to (given that Montero is a Diamondback until the end of the season, if all goes according to intial plan), so things may stay just as they are until the trade deadline (or later), but it seems like this is somewhere where we, the fans, will see some movement, sooner rather than later.

Looks like it’s time to break out the magic 8 ball. Again.

In what would initially seem a slightly odd and sudden move, both Miguel Montero and GM Kevin Towers suddenly announced Wednesday that talks of an extension have been put on hold.

Nick Piecoro indicated that the two sides were unable to find common ground (twitter), although Miguel Montero did tell Jack Magruder that he considered the Diamondbacks to be his priority following this upcoming season.

Regardless, it looks like Miguel Montero will be joining a relatively stacked group of free-agent catchers (Napoli, Martin and Ianetta) in 2013 (kudos to MLBtraderumors for keeping tabs on these things).

Previous reports have indicated that the length of the contract was not the obstacle, so process of deduction leads us to conclude that it was – as usual – coming down to the dollar amount.

Over the weekend, we looked at why the two sides might not have been able to reach an agreement. For more speculation about each side’s possible thoughts on an extension, feel free to re-visit this post and read up on Montero’s history of inconsistent playing time, his valuable offensive contributions in 2011, and how he could price himself outside of the Diamondbacks’ budget by testing the free agent market – simply by staying healthy.

And, given the recent Yadier Molina extension (5 years @ $75 million), the timing of the sudden “breakdown” in contract talks seems little suspect. Again, Nick Piecoro indicated that both sides are insisting that they weren’t affected by that recent news, but it seems highly coincidental that two groups of people who were already (one would assume) not seeing eye-to-eye on value would all of a sudden just spontaneously decide to end negotiations following the signing of the third largest contract for a catcher – ever.

Perhaps the announcement isn’t so much odd as it is reflective of a gap between the sides that was either:

1. Larger than previously appreciated. Or,

2. Suddenly larger following the events of earlier this week.

Although Yadier Molina has shown far more durability over his career, their offensive production had been comparable in the last few seasons – with Montero even collecting a slight advantage over Molina in some categories.

So, while a good season in a contract year will likely be very helpful to the Diamondbacks’ goal of repeating  as division champions, they’re probably going to have to start saving their pennies, because the ink isn’t even dry on Molina’s new contract and it seems like Miguel Montero’s asking price is going up.

Wrapping up the week that was, while we get ready for the week to come.

From “Snakes on the Grass”:

• Minors Monday focused mostly on an in-depth profile of top prospect Trevor Bauer.
• There was some mild speculation that the Dbacks would be looking for depth at catcher.
• We took a look at why the Diamondbacks and Miguel Montero might be having a bit of difficulty reaching an agreement on an extension.
• MLB announced that an early spring training game against the Cleveland Indians will have the players wearing microphones.
• We took a look at why the Nats would have to be creative to pry Gerardo Parra from the Diamondacks
• Thanks to Charles Brewer, the hazing trip that that the Diamondbacks’ rookie pitchers took to the Renaissance Festival was posted to twitter for us all to enjoy!

Best of the rest of the web:

• AZCentral posted a great interview/profile of John McDonald. It’s a great look into the camaraderie inside the Diamondbacks’ clubhouse. Well worth a read.
• For a complete round-up of spring training news, head over to the blog of MLB.com’s beat reporter Steve Gilbert‘s blog (Inside the Dbacks)
• Trevor Bauer showed up to training camp. He thought he was early. Turns out, he was wrong. This story and a few other nuggets from spring training here at AZCentral.
• Some people have high expectations of Bryan Shaw
• John Sickels at minorleagueball.com took a look back at the history of Miguel Montero‘s career.
• MLB.com reported that the Washington Nationals were interested in Gerardo Parra. The Diamondbacks quickly squashed that rumor – for the moment.
• Speaking of Gerardo Parra, he definitely showed some class in addressing his most-likely-4th-outfielder role in 2012.
• Nick Piecoro revealed that Takashi Saito has a different training program than the other Diamondbacks’ pitchers. And, perhaps more surprisingly, wasn’t required to take a physical prior to signing- because the front office thought he would fail it.

Today’s the day of the first full-squad workout in Arizona and we’re that much closer to real live baseball games.

One of the stories that has come out of Salt River Fields in the last couple of days is that catcher Miguel Montero and the team are still a ways apart on negotiating an extension.

image from flikr user afagen (flikr.com/photos/afagen/3803285289/)

What We Know: There’s History in Arizona

Miguel Montero was signed by the Arizona Diamondbacks as a high school player out Venezuela in 2001 (as an amateur free agent). He spent 5 years in the minor league system, before making his debut with the organization in 2006 as a September call-up. He’s played his entire career in the Diamondbacks uniform until this point, and has said that he would like to stay in Arizona.

It is also been revealed that both Montero and the club aren’t having any trouble agreeing to the length of the contract, but its the question of money where the two sides diverge. This was evident when it took until moments before his arbitration hearing for 2012 for the two sides to agree on a salary. Even in his arbitration figures, it was easy to see that the 2 sides have very differing ideas of Montero’s “value”. Montero filed at $6.8 million and the team at $5.4 million.

Although this is most often the case in contract negotionations, I think the reasons why this might be are particularly easy to see when it comes to Miguel Montero.

What We Know: Miguel Montero is Good. REALLY GOOD.

We know that Miguel Montero is very good at baseball. He was an all-star in 2011 and even earned himself some votes in the MVP ballotting. He was first in the NL in caught-stealing percentage (40%) – a number which he has DOUBLED since 2008 – and second in the NL at the number of runners he threw out. He also made the leaderboard in the number of putouts on the season (9th) for the first time. Defensive metrics for catchers are generally quite crap, but I think its safe to say that, at the very least, his defense at catcher has improved over time. He’s still high up there on the number of passed balls and errors, but those are stats that are affected by both the number of opportunities you have and are also relatively subjective. So, again, defensive metrics are still crap.

In terms of Miguel’s offensive production, his RBISs, batting average, slugging percentage, isolated power and on base percentage was second to only Justin Upton on the team. In comparison to other catchers in baseball in 2011, his RBIs were 2nd among catchers (second to only Victor Martinez), his 18 HRs were tied for 8th with Russel Martin, 2nd in doubles (again, behind Victor Martinez – and Miguel was 9th overall in the NL in the number of doubles he hit), he was 4th in batting average (again, first place went to V-Mart), 3rd in OBP, slugging and OPS (behind Victor Martinez and Alex Avila).

So, it is pretty clear that he delivers offensively for his team, but also that his numbers stand up against the best in baseball. And, considering that V-Mart spent more than 100 games at DH this year (and Alex Avila puled DH-duty 4 times), that’s some impressive company to find himself in. He can hit.

» Continue reading “Contract Talk. Or: Everyone Wants Montero To Stay (Including Miguel Montero)”