Diamondback Journal

This is definitely good news. 

This is a pretty interesting story on the Diamondbacks starting rotation.  I guess anytime you can make Brandon Webb happy, it’s a good thing even though his talk of protection in the rotation doesn’t make much sense.  It also goes into how while the pitching has been good, the hitting hasn’t and that’s cost us some games.  It’s a really good read on the start of the Diamondbacks.

The three game winning streak ended yesterday but the Diamondbacks made up some ground and they now sit just two games back of the Dodgers and the Padres in the loss column.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is, the Giants are right on our tail and even the Rockies, at seven games back, are hardly out of it.  It’s still anyone’s race at this point.

It’s kind of bad when Tony Clark is your homerun leader but it is what it is.  Clark has been solid for the Diamondbacks this year and while the batting average isn’t there, the power is.  A .580 slugging percentage is nothing to scoff at. 

Orlando Hudson has struggled of late and he hasn’t driven in a run in over a week.  He’s also seen his batting average drop from a healthy .310+ to .282 and his OPS has been shaved by over 50 points.  What’s most surprising is that, at least so far, Hudson’s defense hasn’t been that great and he posts a -1 fielding runs above average.  And this is after four straight season where he exceeded 15 in FRAA.  He has a long way to go to get back to that point for a fifth year.

Randy Johnson had another nice start Sunday.  The 10/0 strikeout to walk ratio says it all and you hope that the old Randy Johnson, at least in some form, is back for good.  It’s his third straight solid start and while he’s only pitched into the seventh once, you’re getting some solid production for around 2/3 of the game, which is all we can ask.

Jose Valverde is tied for the National League lead in saves with seventeen.  He’s lost two and those were both pretty ugly, but that’s a fair percentage. I guess I could live with a loss a month if he does his job other 12-15 times he comes out and pitches.

The Diamondbacks finale against the Rockies is tonight.  Then the Astros roll into town for a four game set.  If the Diamondbacks just win, the rest will take care of itself.  Doug Davis gets the start tonight.

We’ve been having some technical difficulties here at Baseball Historians so that’s the reason for the abscence.  Things are fixed now and hopefully just in time for a run by the Diamondbacks.  They continue to struggle and after losing three of their last four games, they site just a game above .500 and in the middle of the pack for second place.  The Dodgers have a three game lead for first but then three teams, including the Diamondbacks, are duking it out for second fiddle.  Hopefully a three game series against the last place Rockies will do the trick.

Max Scherzer made his debut over the weekend, it’s just unfortunate that it wasn’t for a Diamondback minor league affiliate.  He did throw well in his debut the Independent League Fort Worth Cats as a way to showcase his skills.  The Diamondbacks have until the end of the month to sign or he goes back into the draft mix.

Chris Young is finally hitting out of his slump as he makes his bid for the National League Rookie of the Year.  Josh Hamilton with the Reds will be the sentimental favorite but Young now has six homers and five stolen bases (without getting caught) and his six game hitting streak has boosted his batting average from just at the Mendoza line to a more respectable .258.

Randy Johnson throws in the series opener today and it sure would be nice to see him pick up his first win.  The strikeout to walk ratio is there (28/7) but hitters are tagging him at a .292 clip. 

The Diamondbacks have put together another extended streak and because of it, they’ve now moved back into first place.  They’ve been in first, then fourth, now back to first.  I’d like to say they’re here to stay, but things are just too tight.

Last night, they got it done behind a nice outing by Brandon Webb.  He gave up just one on four hits and three walks with two strikeouts in seven solid innings.  He’s now pushed his ERA down to 3.21 and he’s put together three nice starts in a row after a couple of shaky ones in first three.

Orlando Hudson continued to hit the ball well.  He went three for five with an RBI and two runs and he’s now hitting .352 on the season.  Chris Young also showed some flashes of what we can hopefully expect from him in the future with two homeruns and three RBIs.  Carlos Quentin had a nice game as well and he went two for three with two runs.

There’s still two more games left in this series.  Picking up this first one was nice though so hopefully now the Diamondbacks can just keep it going.