Diamondback Journal

Trot Nixon Signed

Last week, the Diamondbacks signed longtime Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indian outfielder Trot Nixon to a minor league contract. Nixon was signed as an insurance policy if Chad Tracy is not ready for Opening Day after surgery on his right knee in the offseason. The plan means that despite no previous experience at first base, the lifetime outfielder is learning a new position. The Diamondbacks are set in the outfield with Chris Young, Eric Byrnes, Justin Upton starting, and Jeff Salazer as the fourth outfielder.

Nixon is coming off a 2007 season where he hit .251 with just three homers and 31 RBI’s in 99 games with the Cleveland Indians

Hall, Byrnes Sign Contract Extensions

With CEO Jeff Moorad and managing general partner Ken Kendrick happy with the direction the organization is heading, they felt it was time to reward a couple of key parts of that movement. Team president Derrick Hall and general manager Josh Byrnes both were signed to eight year contract extensions, carrying them through the 2015 season.

Hall was appointed team president in October 2006 after the previous presider, Rich Dozer, resigned. He is an Arizona State University graduate, and is a very popular figure among fans. The fact that he is accessible to fans, and has created a fan friendly environment contributed greatly to the recent success of the organization. The working atmosphere has been a focus of Hall’s, and the organization was recently named one of the best places to work in the Phoenix area.

Byrnes joined the organization after the 2005 season. Among his other positions held are scouting director with Cleveland, and assistant general manager with both Colorado and Boston. He was with Boston when they won the 2004 World Series. He has been a huge part of the recent success, picking up Dan Haren this offseason, as well as Chris Young in 2005.

Spring Training Underway

Spring Training opened up last week for all major league clubs, with pitchers and catchers reporting first followed by position players later in the week. The first game is on February 28th versus the Colorado Rockies. The game will be broadcast on mlbtv.

One is a 6’3″ 230 pound right-handed hitter hailing from Texas, the other is 5’11″, 195 pound Venezuelan lefty. Coming off a season where they split time, the pair of Chris Snyder and Miguel Montero are looking at same playing time arrangement this year.

Snyder is coming off a season in which he hit .252 with 13 homers in 326 at bats, and is considered the starter by manager Bob Melvin. Despite the average offensive production, Melvin really likes the way that Snyder calls a game behind the dish.

“He knows our game plan going in and makes sure it’s followed through out there,” Melvin said in an interview with mlb.com. “Snyder did obviously quite a bit last year to thrust himself into a starting role.”

Montero, rated as the #5 prospect in the Diamondbacks organization in 2007 by Baseball America, hit .224 with 10 homers in 214 at bats in the 2007 campaign, provides a nice option off the bench for Melvin. He supplied a punch off the bench last year in the pinch hitting role. Montero went 7-20 with 3 homers as a pinch hitter.

The combination that Melvin has with Snyder and Montero should be a luxury that many other teams would love to have. As long as the production is there, the Diamondbacks can play both of them with confidence going into 2008.

The Spring Training battle to be the closer on Opening Day is over before it ever started. According to MLB.com, manager Bob Melvin told reporters in a Wednesday afternoon conference call, that Brandon Lyon will open Spring Training as the closer. He added that Tony Pena and Chad Qualls will be in the set-up role.

After the departure of National League save leader Jose Valverde to the Houston Astros in the off-season, the role of closer was expected to be filled by either Lyon or Pena. The announcement came as a surprise, because the decision was not expected to be made until at least late Spring Training.

Lyon had been the closer for the Diamondbacks previously. In 2005, he opened the season as the closer before an injury sidelined him in May. Since then, health has not flared up as an issue, as Lyon appeared in a career-high 73 games last season. He posted a record of 6-4, with an ERA of 2.68.

Pena pitched in 75 ballgames last season, with an ERA of 3.27. He converted two save opportunities in five chances, along with winning games opposed to four losses. According to Melvin, Pena will take on most of the eighth inning situations.

Qualls joins the Diamondbacks bullpen after spending the first four seasons of his career in Houston. Over the last three seasons, Qualls has averaged 79 appearances for the Astros. He earned the reputation as one of the best set up men in the game, which was a reason the Diamondbacks were able to part with Valverde. Last year, Qualls had a 3.05 ERA with a 6-5 record. He will handle mostly seventh inning and some eighth inning situations.

As all three have the abilities to close games, if Lyon is slow out of the gate, Pena and Qualls are waiting in the wings to step in and be the guy to end games for the D’backs this year.

The third of three brothers to play Major League Baseball takes the field at shortstop. A small-town Kentucky boy at the hot corner. The son of an actor from the CBS show JAG holding down first base.

Stephen Drew, Mark Reynolds and Conor Jackson fill three-quarters of the Arizona Diamondbacks infield this year. Orlando Hudson, in his third season with the Diamondbacks, is slated in to start at second base.

Drew, the 15th overall pick in the first round of the 2004 MLB Draft, is the younger brother of Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew, and former MLB pitcher Tim Drew. After starring at Florida State, the organization was excited to have found Drew still available at number 15. He made his debut in 2006, hitting .316 in 59 games, after Craig Counsell was placed on the DL.

After a successful rookie season, Drew hit a sophomore slump, hitting just .238. Starting this season, Drew will be looking at the chance to have a coming out party in 2008. Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus listed Drew as a potential breakout player this upcoming season. Following suit, Daniel Rathman from the Most Valuable Network, rated Drew as the #2 breakout candidate in the 08 campaign. If that is any indication, maybe D’backs fans have yet to see what Drew can really do.

Reynolds, a 16th round draft pick in 2004, is entering his second season as the starting third baseman. He made his debut last season on May 16, after Chad Tracy went down with an injury. Reynolds had an immediate impact, hitting .426 in the month of May with 15 RBI in 15 games. After ups and downs for the rest of the season, he finished hitting .279, with 17 homers, making for a nice rookie campaign.

The Diamondbacks concern with Reynolds is his selectivity at the plate. He posted 129 strikeouts in 2007, including a record-tying nine consecutive K’s in August, while drawing just 37 walks. With maturity, and working with hitting coach Rick Schu, the ratio of K/BB should improve this season.

Jackson, a first round pick in the 2003 MLB Draft, opens the season as the starting first baseman after splitting time with the now departed Tony Clark last year. After hitting over .300 at all of his minor league stops, Jackson was called up in late 2005, and opened 2006 on the 25-man roster. For the 2007 season, Jackson posted a .284 batting average with 15 homers, almost duplicating his .291 and 15 homers from 2006.

A former third baseman and outfielder, Jackson is still working on his fielding at first. He finished last among MLB first baseman last year with a fielding percentage of .988. Once he finds the consistency in the field that he has displayed at the plate, Jackson should anchor down first base in Chase Field for a while.

After spending the first four seasons of his career north of the border in Toronto, Orlando Hudson signed with Arizona before the 2006 season. The switch-hitting second baseman quickly became a fan favorite for his great defense and hard, all out play. Baseball America ranked Hudson as the best defensive second baseman before the 2007 season. Before going down with a torn ligament in his thumb, Hudson was hitting .294 in 2007. Coming back healthy, the “O-Dog” is going to be back on Baseball Tonight’s “Web Gem’s” in no time.

Newly acquired Chris Burke is expected to back up Hudson and Drew, while Tracy returns from injury to back up at first and third. Augie Ojeda is also in the mix up the middle.

Dontrelle Willis put on the old English ‘D’ of the Detroit Tigers. Johan Santana is on his way to don the orange and blue New York Mets jersey. Among all the media mayhem over such big names moving to new teams, possibly the biggest pitcher on the move during the off-season did not garner the focus of baseball fans nationwide.

The baseball world was sent into a frenzy over the Marlins shipping the left-handed Willis, along with third baseman Miguel Cabrera to the Tigers. Nine days later, Diamondbacks fans were celebrating the acquisition of pitcher Dan Haren from the Oakland Athletics.

The starting pitcher for the American League in the 2007 All-Star Game, Haren will team up with ace Brandon Webb to form arguably the best 1-2 punch in the National League. Haren brings his 15-9 record and 3.07 ERA in 2007 to a rotation that already features Webb, Randy Johnson, Doug Davis, and Micah Owings.

The Diamondbacks are coming off a season in which they won the NL West and swept the Chicago Cubs in the Division Series before losing to the Colorado Rockies in the NL Championship Series. With all but one key component (closer Jose Valverde) returning to the Diamondbacks pitching staff for the 2008 season, adding Haren may make them the favorites in the West.

Webb will be the Opening Day starter against the Cincinnati Reds. After winning the NL Cy Young in 2006, Webb came back with a strong campaign in 2007, finishing second in the voting to Jake Peavy of the San Diego Padres. The sinker-balling Webb ranked among the top three in the NL in many statistical categories in 2007. He ranked second in wins (18), second in ERA (3.01), first in complete games (4), and led all of baseball in shutouts (3).

Webb had a memorable stretch in the second half of the season. Starting with a scoreless bottom of the 7th inning against the Cubs on July 20th, Webb did not give up a run until the top of the 1st against the Brewers on August 22nd. The 42-inning scoreless streak spanned over his next 5 starts, 3 of them complete game shutouts. Overall in the second half, Webb had 10 wins with an ERA of 2.56, including 4 wins and an ERA of 1.83 in the month of August.

The 44-year old Johnson is looking to bounce back from back surgery on a re-herniated disk in his lower back. The 6’10″ giant has racked up 284 wins in his career, and will be looking to write his name into the heralded 300 win club. In 10 games last year, Johnson went 4-3 with a 3.81 ERA and 76 K’s in 56.2 innings. Johnson could be the number two starter in the rotation, to split up the right handed Webb and Haren. The biggest thing Johnson brings to the rotation is 22 years of big league experience that is a welcome veteran experience on a young team.

The fourth spot will be filled by Davis, a 13 game winner in 2007. Davis brings a different dimension to the Diamondbacks rotation. After the sinker-baller Webb, the gunslinger Johnson, and the hard throwing Haren, Davis is a more soft-throwing and finesse pitcher. In the last 4 seasons, Davis has won an average of just under 12 games, 12 in 2004, 11 in 2005 and 2006, and 13 in 2007. The reliability in production makes Davis a valuable pitcher to have in the fourth rotation slot.

The final starting spot is occupied by part pitcher/part slugger Micah Owings. Owings made his debut last season with the Diamondbacks on April 6th last year, and showed the abilities on the mound and at the plate that earned him All-American as a utility (pitcher/position player) at Tulane University. He led all MLB pitcher in doubles (7), homers (4), RBI (15) and total bases (41). The impressive numbers earned Owings the Silver Slugger award for pitchers at the end of the season.

Owings’ success were not limited to the plate however, he won 8 games in his rookie campaign with a 4.30 ERA. He had two complete games, one being a shutout. If Owings can put up some solid numbers again this year, it would be a nice boost from the bottom of the rotation.

With two potential Cy Young winners, a future Hall of Famer, and a power hitting pitcher in the rotation, Diamondbacks fans have good reason to be excited about this season. At the center of that excitement is what could prove to be the biggest trade of the off-season. If things go as GM Josh Byrnes planned when making the trade for Haren, the baseball world will have it’s eyes on the Diamondbacks in October.