October 22, 2009
Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Mark Reynolds has had an interesting year to say the least. Coming off the 2008 season with the dubious honor of being the MLB record holder for strikeouts everyone was wondering what would happen in 2009.
Would Reynolds be able to become more patient at the plate and cut down on the strikeout total? Could he cut down on the fielding errors he committed in 2008? What exactly is Reynolds potential as a big league player?
Continue reading ‘The Ups and Downs of Mark Reynolds’ »
October 21, 2009
As the Arizona Diamondbacks finished the 2001 regular season and prepared for the post season, the team was not given much of a chance of going deep into the play-offs. Although Arizona had perhaps the best 1-2 starting pitching combination in the history of baseball they had a dark secret that many believed would doom them to failure.
On the 2001 post season roster the Diamondbacks had not one but two former Chicago Cubs in outfielder Luis Gonzalez and first baseman Mark Grace that were in their everyday starting line-up.
Continue reading ‘The Former Diamondbacks Curse?’ »
October 20, 2009
Since the end of the regular season, there has been a veritable carousel of coaching changes that have occurred around baseball. Now with the off-season just a couple of weeks old, we’re beginning to hear names associated with various jobs around the league.
The Arizona Diamondbacks are heavily involved having placed several coaches on the carousel themselves. I thought it might be interesting to look at what we know right now.
Continue reading ‘The Coaching Carousel’ »
October 19, 2009
Over the weekend sports writer Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe wrote a piece about the readiness of Los Angeles Dodgers hitting coach Don Mattingly to be a major league manager. It was a well-written article but for Arizona Diamondbacks fans it held very little interest.
At the end of the article, Cafardo listed a few tidbits of information he had collected from around the league. As you might expect most of these had some reference to the Boston Red Sox and what they may consider doing during the off-season.
Continue reading ‘Drew a Blank?’ »
October 18, 2009
Arizona Diamondbacks General Manager Josh Byrnes is getting a reputation for someone you want to avoid when it comes to dining invitations. It seems as though nothing good ever happens when you go out to eat with him.
With the 2006 season winding down the Arizona Diamondbacks had a decision to make. Left fielder and fan favorite Luis Gonzalez had a club option for the 2007 season and the rumor mills were all reporting that the Diamondbacks had no intention of picking up the option.
Continue reading ‘Breakfast Anyone?’ »
October 17, 2009
I have been so busy with the baseball playoffs that I nearly missed the press release by the Arizona Diamondbacks announcing the selection of a contractor for the new Spring Training home of the Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.
Mortenson Construction was awarded the project to be the general contractor on the Spring Training complex. This is a name that should be quite familiar to Cactus League fans. They recently completed the fields for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox that opened last year in Glendale Arizona.
Continue reading ‘Bob the Builder, Can He Make It?’ »
October 16, 2009
I faired a little better in my predictions for the American League Divisional Series winners than I did for the National League. That really makes no sense to me; I am a died-in-the-wool National League fan and track the senior circuit religiously. Why then couldn’t I predict the NL winners? Hopefully my NLCS predictions will fair a little better.
Although I did successfully predict both the Yankees and the Angels for moving on, I did not anticipate how they dominated their opponents. I thought the Twins would win one game in the Metrodome given the home field advantage that venue has given previously in the post season. What that showed me though was how strong the Yankees really are this season.
Continue reading ‘American League Championship Series’ »
October 15, 2009
Now that the first round of the Major League Baseball play-offs are behind us, I thought I’d check back in and see how well my prognostic skills were. When I made my predictions for the 2009 post season I was clearly hopped up on cough syrup or some sort of delusional medication.
In the National League I completely underestimated the flow of momentum going into the NLDS series. I mistakenly anticipated that the St. Louis Cardinals with the two best pitchers in the National League starting games one and two and the NL MVP at first base would dominate the struggling Los Angeles Dodgers.
Continue reading ‘National League Championship Series’ »
October 14, 2009
What a great day for Opening Day! No I did not find a good price on a used DeLorean and I didn’t hit my head in the bathroom and awoke with a vision of the plans for a flux capacitor. Major League Baseball Opening Day is still 173 days 3 hours and 25 minutes until that occurs. But for residents in Arizona, yesterday was Opening Day for the Arizona Fall League.
I briefly talked before about the Arizona Fall League. It’s a great opportunity to see the future stars of Major League Baseball. The level of competition is fairly high for a development league. Before you get your hopes up too high you need to remember this is a developmental league.
Continue reading ‘Welcome to Opening Day!’ »
