Time to break out the broken dog picture again: Daniel Hudson is on the 15-day DL with shoulder impingement.

The injury bug is sweeping through Diamondbacks nation and it is getting a very discouraging.

Between Geoff Blum and Chris Young (who are also on the DL) and Justin Upton (who probably should be) – this is becoming a bit of an epidemic.

In the corresponding roster move, the Dbacks have called up Jonathan Albaladejo from Reno – essentially using someone on the 40-man roster to add depth to the bullpen – likely for use in long relief or mop-up duty if the need arises.

Since it only makes sense that the Diamondbacks are going to have to replace a starting pitcher with another starting pitcher… At the moment, (according to Jack Magruder, via twitter) Wade Miley might be a candidate to take over the rotation spot. But, baseball is more fun with speculation.

So, this is the time to speculate as to which Dback pitching prospect is going to get the call.

Let’s have at it, folks.  Check out the poll on the sidebar and weigh in on who might be coming up to fill in Daniel Hudson’s spot.

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So, in celebration of opening day (part 2 – because there was meaningful baseball in Japan, remember?), the MLB crew at Aerys Sports have put our thinking caps on and come up with three big questions that will need to be on the mind of every fan of every team.

And, here at Snakes on the Grass, we’ve compiled the three biggest questions surrounding each of the other teams in the NL West. It will depend on how each team answers these questions, as to how the race to win the NL West will play out.

Here we go:

• Dodgers (courtesy of Elise Meyers, Around The Horn)

1. UNDER. NEW. OWNERSHIP! Life is looking up again in Dodgertown. Just over two billion dollars was the magic number that rescued the Dodgers from Bankrupt Frank McCourt and sent the Boys in Blue into the arms of Los Angeles Lakers Legend Magic Johnson and baseball mogul Stan Kasten. In the words of @MLBJesus: “Let thy Dodgers be reborn under Magical skies. Amen.”
2. Dodger Stadium celebrates 50 years this season! Fifty years of palm trees, California sunshine, organ music, Dodger Dogs, and one of our favorite men in baseball, the lovable and compelling Vin Sculley. Stay tuned for special events throughout the season including a 50th Anniversary Fanfest on May 19th with autographs from current and former Dodgers, DJs, comedy sketches, and fun for all!
3. Star Power: Despite his extravagant 2011 league-leading stats (115 runs scored, 353 total bases 39 home runs, 115 RBI, 10.0 WAR) Matt Kemp did not land the title of National League MVP, but this season may be his second shot at the running. If it is any indication of his ability, he was the first pick of the first round in my fantasy league draft, favored even over Jose Bautista among a flock of Blue Jays fans nonetheless! Ace Clayton Kershaw has already given Dodger fans a run for their money in Spring Training. The 2011 Cy Young winner will look to defend his title in the upcoming season. As if defending his title as a SoCal teen heartthrob wasn’t enough of a job.

•  Giants (courtesy of Mac, 3rd Street Kings)

1. How will Buster Posey‘s return progress? (And, with Stephen Drew suffering a similar injury, Posey’s recovery should be on the minds of all Dbacks fans.)
2. How much playing time will Brandon Belt get this season?
3. Just how good will Madison Bumgarner be this season?

• Padres (courtesy of Tamara, The Oaktown Breakdown [Oakland Athletics])

1. The Padres farm system ranked in the top 5 of almost every expert’s lists this season, how many prospects will make it to San Diego this year?
2. Cory Luebke had a great rookie year although his wins don’t reflect his actual success. Can he carry his success last year into his sophomore year and will the team give him the run support to get the wins?
3. When the Padres traded Mat Latos to the Reds they lost the ace of the staff, will Edinson Volquez be able to fill that void or will a new pitcher emerge as their ace?

•  Colorado Rockies

1.  The second man to take the hill for the Rockies this season will be 49 year old Jamie Moyer. While he’s looking to become the oldest man to win a baseball game, he’s also looking at a long season of pitching in a very hitter-friendly ballpark at age 49. How will he hold up?
2. Jeremy Guthrie is going to be heading up this pitching rotation. He’s a bit of a mystery. He’s moving from the power-hitting AL East and the slightly pitcher-friendly Oriole Park at Camden Yards to the less offense-driven NL West, but to the hitter-friendly Coors Field. How will his repetoire play out over the course of the season?
3. The NL does not have the DH (duh!), but with Todd Helton ensconced at 1B, the newly acquired Michael Cuddyer (who played 46 of his 139 games in 2011 at 1B last year in Minnesota, 8 at DH and only 77 in RF) will be a full-time outfielder. How will he adjust to the change? Will his body hold up to the rigors and allow him to provide consistent offense? And, how will he adjust to his first season not in a Twins’ uniform?

And, in terms of what I felt were the 3 big questions that were going to be the keys to the 2012 Diamondbacks‘ season:

1. How long will Stephen Drew be MIA? And, will the creative combination of two guys who’ve never been considered every day players (Willie Bloomquist and John McDonald) be able to form an every day player?
2. What one earth is the outfield going to look like on a daily basis? Where will Gerardo Parra find himself most nights – the bench? left field? center? The Washington Nationals?
3. Will the “career years” of Ian Kennedy, Miguel Montero and Ryan Roberts be a flash in the pan, will the “breakout years” of Daniel Hudson and Paul Goldschmidt end up being “career years”, and are the Diamondbacks going to get the 2011 Diamondbacks version of Aaron Hill, or the 2011 Blue Jays version?

Alright, everyone. Let’s play ball.

image from Adam Eaton's twitter profile (@AdamSpankyEaton). He'll be back in that uniform sooner than later.

Prior to yesterday’s Diamondbacks game against the Indians, I was looking around Diamondbacks’ stats pages and noticed that, somehow, Adam Eaton had weaseled his way into more spring training at-bats than a fair number of people expected to make the 25 man roster. Notably, Jason Kubel, Miguel Montero, Lyle Overbay, and Geoff Blum.

If you need a quick refresher on Adam Eaton, we previewed him in our spring training preview post. In summary, he’s a 2010 19th round pick of the Diamondbacks and played in every level from Rookie ball to AA last year and then continued his season by leading the Arizona Fall League in runs scored.

FYI: This is not the Adam Eaton you are looking for.  Although, the Dbacks’ Adam Eaton does get his paychecks occasionally. He’s fast (42 stolen bases with a 71% success rate), hits for average and power and he’s fearless. In summary: go read this story.

He’s the type of player I love and, even though he was optioned back to Mobile after yesterday’s game, he definitely made an impression this year. I’m going to make a bold prediction that he’s going to turn out to be the 5th outfielder waiting in the wings, in case of injury or trades.

At the start of the season, there was endless talk about what to do with Gerardo Parra. Now the Dbacks were going to be putting a gold glove on the bench. How could this be?! He must be on the trade block!

And, over and over and over again, we’ve heard that this isn’t the case and that he’s very much a part of this team.

Well, if it helps, it seems as though the coach staff is putting their money where their mouths are.

Currently, Gerardo Parra is 3rd overall on the team in terms of games played (23 – Eaton and AJ Pollock are tied with 24); he’s leading the team in at-bats (63 – Willie Bloomquist is next with 52); he’s also leading the team in plate appearances (67 – Paul Goldschmidt is next with 61).

And, in order to ensure that he’s playing well enough to stay off the bench, he’s leading the team in runs, hits, and stolen bases (granted, there are only 2, but still). All-in-all, it really doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere.

Even though this blog has talked about Miguel Montero over and over again (he wants to stay a Dback, but they’ve stopped contract talks, there seems to be an ongoing search for some depth at catcher and, if something happens to Montero during this season, there is very little depth at catcher), after yesterday, there is still more to say.

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

It seems as though, with a good season, Miguel Montero will likely price himself  of the small-market budget of the Diamondbacks. Jack Magruder of Fox Sports Arizona reported on the specifics yesterday. And, the quotes from Miguel Montero certainly didn’t do anything to calm the speculation.

“Who knows? It can happen. It’s part of the business. I’m here right now. I have to enjoy the moment here, because you never know where you are going to be tomorrow. It’s like everybody’s life. You are here today. You don’t know where you are going tomorrow,”

Will 2012 give the Diamondbacks the arrival of Adam Eaton? A true 4-man outfield? The departure of Miguel Montero?

162 games is a long time. Everything is possible. But, one thing IS for certain – I’ll be buckled in, waiting to find out and prepared for anything.

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.

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

When it comes to trade rumors, you don’t have to look very hard no matter which team is your team. And, for most teams, they ebb and flow and sometimes the rumor mill is quiet and other times, you can’t walk five steps without tripping over four or five rumors.

For the Diamondbacks, there’s been a slight resurgence in rumors this week.

Here’s what we know:

1. Miguel Montero would like to stay a Diamondback.
2. Miguel Montero and the team halted discussions of an extension until the end of the season, which would make him a free agent for 2013.
3. The Dbacks are a small market team with big market dreams and went over their projected payroll this year and are hoping that the people who hopped on the badwagon last year stick around to support it.
4. Yadier Molina just signed a pretty hefty, long-term deal that may become a bargaining chip in Montero’s free agency.
5. There’s a general lack of catching depth in the Dbacks’ organization. (And, frankly, in terms of prospects, the prospects are very heavily weighted towards pitching, pitching and more pitching.)
6. If something happens to Miguel Montero this season (dear heavens find some wood to knock on, y’all), then the Diamondbacks are more-or-less without an everyday catcher. And, if he’s gone at the end of the season, there’s a bit of a hole there for 2013.

So, when trade rumors that the Diamondbacks could be interested in Toronto Blue Jays catcher JP Arencibia, it does give reason for pause.

And, what are blogs for, if not to speculate?

» Continue reading “The Rumor Mill Goes Around And Around… Or: Dbacks Trade Speculation”

Trevor Bauer signed with the Dbacks in 2011

There were also two alternate titles for this post: “Trevor Bauer Is A Smart Dude” and “How A Pitching Prospect Spawned a Post About The History of the Disabled List“. But, basically, what it boils down to is that you should probably familiarize yourself with Trevor Bauer – if you haven’t already.

He’s a 21 year old RHP who was drafted 3rd overall in June 2011.

He did a whole lot of very impressive things while playing baseball for UCLA, eventually winning the Golden Spikes award during his draft year. And, after he signed, he pitched a total of 7 games for A+ Visalia and AA Mobile in 2011 following signing with the Diamondbacks.

Other things that are interesting about Trevor Bauer have been chronicled in a number of different places. Here’s the rundown (all links are well, well worth a read), before we get to the meat of this article:

» Continue reading “Meet Trevor Bauer. Or: Not Your Average Pitching Prospect”

Today at BeyondTheBoxScore.com, there was a highly interesting (to me, and it should be to all of you) post regarding the regular season success of teams based on the number of “innings eaters” on the roster [HERE].

For the purposes of this discussion, they used the generally accepted threshold of 200 innings pitched as the definition of “innings-eaters”.

In summary (in the words of the author, Jacob Peterson – @junkstats - who you should really be following on twitter):

I decided to examine how team performance has related to the number of 200-inning pitchers that team had. I looked at the years from 1996 to 2011 (the non-strike-shortened years in the One-Wild-Card-Per-League Era).

In the interest of not stomping all over the copyright of other people’s hard work, I have provided a very tiny-screen shot of the article, which you should read by clicking the handy links provided at the top of this post so you can view the very helpful (and colorful) infographic for yourself.

In summarizing the bottom line:

• Teams with 0 pitchers with 200+ innings had an 8% chance of making the playoffs, while teams with 3+ pitchers with 200+ innings had a 67% chance of making the plaoffs. Teams with 1 and 2 innings eaters fell somewhere in the middle.
• 50% of teams with 3+ innings eaters won more than 92 games in the season (and more than 80% of teams with 3+ innings eaters won 85 or more games in the season).

Barring either catastrophe or miracle during spring training, the Diamondbacks’ starting rotation in 2012 will likely be as follows:

                                  information taken from baseballreference.com

» Continue reading “Let’s Talk About Stats,Baby! Or: Workhorse Starters Win Ballgames”

So, what can we learn about Kirk Gibson‘s plan for this 25-man roster based on the first two lineups that he’s put together for today’s pair of games?

Probably absolutely nothing – other than, only in spring training do you get to watch a game between NL West rivals that includes a DH.

While some teams are embracing the intra-squad match-ups, pitting their probable starters versus their probable bench team, Kirk Gibson is not giving away any of the thoughts in his head about his future roster if the line-ups for these split-squad games are anything to go by.

In case you haven’t heard already:

Today @ Salt River Fields (Diamondbacks @ Rockies) – 3:10 pm (EST)

• The pitchers: Trevor Bauer (starter), Chris Jakubauskas, Patrick Corbin, Mike DeMark, Jonathan Albaladejo, Evan Marshall, Kevin Munson, Mike Zagurski
• The line-up (credit to one of the best beats in the biz, Nick Piecoro, for the info): Bloomquist 6, Hill 4, Kubel 7, Goldschmidt 3, Blum DH, Parra 9, Davidson 5, Blanco 2, Pollock 8, Bauer 1
• Of note: Catch the radio broadcast of this game on Arizona Sports 620 or follow it on MLB.com’s gameday HERE.

Today @ Scottsdale Stadium (Diamondbacks at Giants) – 3:05 pm (EST)

• The pitchers: Josh Collmenter (starter), Sam Demel, Wade Miley, Zach Kroenke, Jason Lane, Jensen Lewis, Brett Lorin, Yonata Ortega, Bryan Shaw
• The line-up (credit to one of the best beats in the biz, Nick Piecoro, for the info): Roberts 5, McDonald 6, Upton 9, Montero 2, Young 8, Overbay 3, Schmidt DH, Krauss 7, Ryal 4, Collmenter 1
• Of note: There’s not going to be a broadcast of this game, but the SS will be playing the Giants again tomorrow (at home, this time) and that will be broadcast on Arizona Sports 620. You can follow this game on MLB.com’s gameday HERE.

Versus the Rockies, the skipper has lined up what most people are predicting to be his starting SS (with Bloomquist sharing duties with Johnny Mac until Stephen Drew is cleared for takeoff), his starting second baseman (Hill), and his starting RF (Kubel).

He has paired that with his young first baseman (there’s a mixed set of opinions floating around as to just how much time Goldschmidt will share at first base this season), his rumored fourth outfielder (Parra – who has been rumored to either be a true fourth outfielder, or maybe share time/compete with Chris Young in CF) in RF, his backup catcher and a couple of rookies.

Which, by process of elimination means that he has his likely everyday 3B (Roberts), CF (Young), RF (Upton), catcher (Montero) and his possible 1B platoon paired (Overbay) with his backup SS (McDonald), a youngish prospect known mostly for his bat (Krauss) and the seemingly somewhat randomly chosen Schmidt and Ryal.

It is an interesting mix – and certainly, there’s a true mix of veteran and rookie presence equally divided between the two teams.

We can spend all the time in the world speculating as to which players ended up on which team for any number of reasons (and, since that’s what we like to do, you know that we’ll be thinking about it for the remainder of the afternoon), but trying to figure out what Kirk Gibson is truly thinking with these line-ups is possibly and probably a futile endeavor.

So, instead, we’ll continue to mull it over but trust that Gibby knows exactly what he is looking to see and to work on during these games today. Instead, we’ll simply try to enjoy the fact that there will be REAL! LIVE! BASEBALL! happening for the Diamondbacks today!

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.

So, this morning, rumblings that the Washington Nationals were interested in Gerardo Parra started to make their way around the web.

I shrugged them off and tried to ignore them, but as the afternoon has worn on, the rumors are continuing to permeate.

We have talked a lot about Gerardo Parra during this off-season: his defense, his offense, and his general affordability and relatively equal production in comparison to free-agent outfielder Jason Kubel. We’ve even covered it in pictorial form. This is partially because the stability of the Diamondbacks’ roster didn’t give us too many moves to talk about over the course of the off-season and partially because, of the moves that were made, the one that pushed their gold glove RF to the bench was the most surprising.

But, here we are today. Talking about Gerardo Parra. Again.

So, there seems to be a popular opinon that the Washington Nationals are in need of someone who can play center field. There’s a recap here (thanks to Win For Teddy for keeping me up to date with Nats news that I would otherwise miss), which explains the fluid situation of the Nats’ outfield – particularly center field – going into the start of spring training. The Nats need someone to play CF and Gerardo Parra can do that, even if he’s played far more often in the corners.

Well, its hard to imagine that the Diamondbare going out of their way to shop their fourth outfielder. They traded away one of their top outfield prospects (Collin Cowgill) in the Trevor Cahill trade, so it would create a little bit of uncertainty in terms of the fourth outfielder situation. Not that these problems are insurmountable, but in order to speculate, we have to operate under some basic assumptions.

» Continue reading “Parra Trade Rumors. Or: Sedona Red to Washington Red?”