Diamondback Journal

Pitcher Tyler Skaggs, after a solid showing at two stops in the D-Backs minor league system, was named the twelfth best prospect in baseball by MLB.com.  You have to love his strikeout rate (198 in 158 1/3 innings which included ten starts at Double-A) and opponents hit just .218 against him.  Throw in the fact that he’s left handed and turned 20 in July of last year and you can see why people are excited about this guy.

He was part of the Dan Haren deal and while Haren has had some solid seasons, I like the fact that we have this kid.  He’s not a really hard throws but he has three really good pitches that he can use to get batters out.  My guess is, he starts at Double-A again but he’s not there for long.

The Diamondbacks signed Joe Saunders to a one year, $6 million deal after letting Saunders test the waters last month.  They didn’t offer him arbitration but they were still able to come to terms to bring Saunders back for another year.  He was part of the deal that sent Dan Haren over to the Angels back in 2010.

Saunders is a reliable left hander and he went 12-13 with a 3.69 ERA last year.  He’s not a big strikeout guy and he always seems to win more games then you’d expect from someone who barely gets more then 100 strikeouts in a season but he has 69 major league wins.  Last year he became a work horse of sorts with 212 innings.