Diary of a Diehard

What do you get a guy for Christmas who seems to have everything? Last year Brandon Webb received a National League Cy Young award after completing his best year as a professional. He followed that up in 2007 with an even better year statistically. Unfortunately San Diego Padres ace Jake Peavy happened to do just a little better and took away Webb’s chances of taking home a second consecutive Cy Young. The Diamondbacks went Christmas shopping early and got Brandon Webb an ace to follow him in the rotation. That’s a pretty nice gift if you ask me and it is going to be pretty tough for anyone to top that. Old Uncle Henry is going to feel pretty inadequate when Brandon opens up the autographed Orlando Hudson bobble head that he got Webb for Christmas (by the way I would be more than happy to accept such a generous gift should Uncle Henry have any extras that he might not know what to do with). So is there anyone who can top a wrapped Danny Haren under the tree? I would have to say Ashland Kentucky could answer with a resounding “Yes!”

Continue reading ‘It’s Webby’s Way or the Highway’ »

Every once in a while there comes a hidden benefit to writing your own blog. This happened to me this week when I received an email from Dave Rouleau of Baseball Digest Daily. Dave offered a unique opportunity to Jim McLennan of AZ Snake Pit and myself. We were each provided with a list of five questions to answer about the Arizona Diamondbacks. The results were then posted on The Bloggers Roundtable – Arizona Diamondbacks for review and comments.

Continue reading ‘The Baseball Digest Daily Roundtable’ »

Today marked the next episode of the newest Major League Baseball game show, Name That Steroid User. This show began several months ago when testimony from the grand jury assigned to the Balco investigation was leaked to the press and names began to be mentioned of what players may have been taking performance enhancing drugs. For sweeps week the Mitchell Report was released where more than 84 players were named as using steroids or human growth hormone. After that extravaganza no one believed it could be topped but that is not the case. Today former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Jason Grimsley’s federal sworn statement was unsealed naming yet more players in the pyramid of performance enhancing drug users.

Continue reading ‘Name That Steroid User’ »

There are only four shopping days until Christmas. I know this because my wife and kids have a giant countdown sign that hangs in my direct sight line when I am sitting at the dinner table. They all insist that this is purely coincidental but I am beginning to wonder. The other indication I have that Christmas is arriving shortly is that the number of hints being dropped by my wife have risen substantially over the past week or so. This I think is due to the fact that she knows that I have not done any shopping nor have I taken any of the kids out to do their shopping. She further drove home her point by reminding me of the truck stop debacle of 2004 when all of my gifts appeared to have been purchased at a local 24 hour trucker hang out. Personally I didn’t see anything wrong with a wallet with a chain that attached to your belt and really who couldn’t use a set of mud flaps for their car? Granted the silhouette of undressed women may not have been my first choice but hey I got a pretty good deal on them. No, it was clear that I was not going to get away with that this year which meant that regardless of how much I dreaded Christmas shopping, today was the day. Fortunately, I have the perfect gift in mind and there’s only one place to get it.

Continue reading ‘My Trip Home’ »

Last Friday the Arizona Diamondbacks made quite a splash in pulling off several deals which on paper look to make the team much stronger. The cornerstone of these deals brought the ace of the Oakland Athletics pitching staff to Arizona to provide some much needed depth to the starting rotation. With this one deal, the Diamondbacks for the second time in their history would sport what could be the National League’s best 1-2 starting pitching punch. Not since the glory days of Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling have people talked about a Diamondbacks pitching staff having this kind of depth and dominance. While Brandon Webb is still the ace of the Arizona staff, you could make a strong case that Dan Haren is also the ace giving the Diamondbacks a number 1 starter and a number 1a starter. Have two players of this caliber at the front of your rotation should minimize the length of any losing streak as either of these two can dominate an opponent. Today at Chase Field the Diamondbacks held a press conference to introduce their newest starting pitcher.

Continue reading ‘I Can Relate’ »

The Arizona Diamondbacks announced yesterday that they had reached an agreement with manager Bob Melvin on a contract extension through 2010.  This announcement follows a busy off-season for Melvin who was earlier named the National League Manager of the Year.  The extension had been long expected as the two sides had been talking since shortly after the Diamondbacks ended their play-off run against the Colorado Rockies.  The delay in the announcement was not so much due to involved contract negotiations or haggling over money as it was a matter of time constraints between Melvin and General Manager Josh Byrnes not being able to get together.

Continue reading ‘A Happy Mad Scientist?’ »

When Tony Clark signed a one year contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks the expectations were that he would come in as an insurance policy to be used in case the Diamondbacks youth movement didn’t pan out.  In that season Clark saw more than his fair share of playing time getting 349 at-bats and put up statistics that were well above his career averages.  His .304 batting average coupled with 30 home runs and 87 RBI infused life into the Diamondbacks and led to a 2-year contract extension that kept him in what was then purple and turquoise.  Despite the gaudy numbers that Clark put up that season, expectations were that his role would continue to be a back-up infielder and pinch-hitter for the snakes in 2006.  Clark would also take on the role of clubhouse leader and mentor for young Conor Jackson to help mold him into a more complete defensive player.  Clark had an injury plagued 2006 campaign but his off the field contributions were immeasurable to this team as Arizona began infusing more youth into its roster.

Continue reading ‘Anybody But Tony, Anytime But Now’ »

Nearly everyone, myself included had lamented at the lack of progress the Diamondbacks had been making this off season. If I would have stopped to think about it, it does seem almost laughable that I would be stressed out that Arizona had not pulled the trigger on any number of deals. After all this is a team that was among the youngest in all of the major leagues and by all accounts was set for a long run of success as this core of young talent matured. Really all that was lacking was a little starting pitching depth and that too didn’t seem very far removed if you looked at the farm system. But in a society that revolves around instant gratification we fully expected the Arizona Diamondbacks to aggressively go after each and every free agent or entertain every trade to make themselves better.

Continue reading ‘A Tornado of Trades’ »

One of the more interesting rules within the collective bargaining agreement stipulates that a player must be offered a contract or salary arbitration by a specified date or the player is eligible to become a free agent. The date for 2007 happened to be Wednesday December 12. The Arizona Diamondbacks had six players that fell under this stipulation. Fan favorite and reserve infielder Augie Ojeda agreed to a one-year contract last week with the Diamondbacks eliminating the need for salary arbitration. The remaining five players were all offered arbitration thereby protecting their status as Diamondbacks players. Those five include pitchers Juan Cruz, Brandon Lyon, and Jose Valverde as well as catcher Chris Snyder and second baseman Orlando Hudson. Offering salary arbitration to this group was not much of a surprise. Each of them played a valuable role in 2007 and are expected to have an important part in the success of the 2008 Diamondbacks. The question is what is the next step for each of these?

Continue reading ‘May We Offer You Some Arbitration?’ »