Attending a spring training game, especially early on, can be a bit of a "Who's he?" of baseball. Teams don't have the normal 25-man roster, or even the extended 40-man one, because they also pull up a significant number of additional players. These are usually either veterans on whom they're kicking the tires, or prospects they want to give a taste of big-league opposition, but you can amaze and impress your friends at games (and anyone in the rows around, if you speak loudly enough) if you can nod wisely on hearing their names and lob in a tid-bit of information.

Which is where this piece comes in. Let's take a look at the 20 non-roster invitees for the Diamondbacks this spring, and see if we can't enlighten you a bit as to who they are.

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This comes from a Keith Law tweet. The 28 year old will add depth to our back stop behind Miggy and Blanco. The Diamondbacks have confirmed the news here and have also announced that with this move, the 40 man roster is now full.

"[He's a] good catch-and-throw guy, and some people that knew him in the Baltimore system said some good things about him," Towers said. "He's good people, and he can hold his own behind the plate."

Craig Tatum's career major league stats and his player card (via Baseball-Reference.com)

299 Plate appearances
.223 batting average
1 HR
22 RBI
.264 SLG
.291 OBP

In last week's installment, we spoke to Arizona Diamondbacks' left-hander Joe Paterson about coming to the team from San Francisco, his major-league debut and what he does to prepare to face major-league hitters. In the second part, Joe talks about what goes on in the bullpen, life under Kirk Gibson, and making the post-season in his rookie season.

AZSP: What's the atmosphere like in the bullpen during a game?
JP: Everyone's kinda paying attention, but talking - it goes back and forth between talking about the hitters, and relaxing. I think a lot of guys have different ways of going about it. Some guys don't want to think too much about what's going on, get too worked up two hours before they're going to go in. You'll see, as the game goes on down there, as every inning goes, it gets a little more serious; once you hit the fifth, everyone's pretty locked-in, talking about visitor's scouting reports. But for me at least, I don't want to be down there in the first inning, ready to go, and it's going to be at least an hour or two. I don't think you can be that locked in, that early - I think it's gradual. But different guys are different. I'm sure there are guys down there that are locked-in from pitch one.

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The recent re-signing of left-hander Joe Saunders has certainly created some excitement, whether it be excitement over Joe's return, excitement over the inexpensive $6MM salary for a guy who threw 212 innings with a 3.69 ERA a year ago, or excitement over the fact that Arizona's payroll for 2012 - expected around $80MM - may be its highest since 2003. However, as with almost any move, the excitement is not universal. Amid the discussion yesterday, I came across this comment from SenSurround, which offered a valid concern on the matter of Saunders: he provides innings certainty, but does he provide quality certainty? After all, Saunders' career ERA figures by season are as follows (2005 to 2011): 7.71 (2 GS), 4.71 (13 GS), 4.44 (18 GS), 3.41 (31 GS), 4.60 (31 GS), 4.47 (33 GS), and 3.69 (33 GS). Despite a career ERA of 4.16, Saunders' closest single-season ERA to that career-average figure is the 4.44 figure from 2007 - a season in which he made just 18 starts - 28 points off of his career average. His closest full-single-season ERA (i.e. > 30 GS) to that mark is the 4.47 figure from 2009. This begs the question: just how volatile is Joe Saunders?

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I'm off to Boston for the week, courtesy of work, which has its pluses and minuses - I don't need to pay for much, but won't get much spare time to check out the city. It also means going in January, which is really the last time I want to be going to the North-East; I tried to hold out for summer, or at least baseball season, but my claims I would shatter if exposed to temperatures below 60F were viewed with some skepticism. Oh, well. There will still be content getting posted, hopefully not of the wrong kind. But for today, let's talk about travel and related stuff.

• Favorite state/country visited
• Place in the world you'd most like to see
• Most over-rated destination or sight
• Longest journey taken
• Best and worst trips
• Holiday destinations.
  Urban or rural?
  Beach or mountain?
  Group or solitary?
  Active or slothful?

Less than a month till pitchers and catchers report, and there are plenty of players already milling round Salt River Fields. Got the news my spring training tickets have been printed, so I look forward to opening the envelope and smelling... Is that freshly-cut grass wafting out from within? Here's this week's round-up of stuff, including a particularly large batch of "former Diamondback" information, of one kind or another...

News (more)

• [AZCentral] Hudson: Diamondbacks 'hungry' for more - "It made us all hungry for more right away," pitcher Daniel Hudson said. "It left us with an empty feeling in our stomachs. A lot of guys took (the loss to the Brewers) to heart."
• [dbacks.com] Salt River facilities awe Fantasy Camp players - If it's January, it must be Fantasy Camp. Steve Gilbert is doing his annual report from there - for the first time, being held at Salt River Fields. "This one time, at Fantasy Camp..."
  
• [KTAR] Saunders agrees Braun should lose MVP award if banned - "I don't know if you can take it back. I'm not sure about the rules on that. But definitely if it comes true and he was proven that he did use it, I don't see why Kemp shouldn't get it. I thought Kemp should have got it in the first place."
• [AZCentral] Diamondbacks' front office gambles on payroll "That's a credit to Ken (Kendrick) and ownership," CEO Derrick Hall said this week. "We now have some pressure to increase revenues, but we think we can."

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Name: Gerardo Parra
Age on Opening Day: 23
Salary: $426,000
2011 Stats: 141 games, 493 PAs, .292/.357/.427, 8 HR, 46 RBI
2010 Stats: 133 games, 393 PAs, .261/.308/.371, 3 HR, 30 RBI

The 2011 Diamondbacks were not exactly the team that, back in March, most of us expected to see out on the field. There are a lot of players that really exceeded the expectations that many of us had for them- Ryan Roberts, Micah Owings, Josh Collmenter. But Gerardo Parra definitely deserves a mention on that list, too. After last year, most of us weren't looking for too much from Parra. Sure, he'd shown some decent defense, but his bat... Well, we didn't have much hope. We had some pretty harsh words to say about him, to be quite honest.

But did that stop Gerardo Parra? Oh, no. Ears wasn't listening.

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Four players exchanged their arbitration figures with the Diamondbacks this week, the first step in a process which could - but probably won't - lead to an arbitration hearing, at which they and the team will each put their case before an impartial panel of arbitrators, who will set the salary for the year. After the jump, we'll explain the process, and let you play arbitrator by deciding which of the four men in question most deserves what they're asking for.

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