This Week (and a bit) in Diamondbacks Baseball: Silver Sluggers, relevance and we back Buckner

by Jim McLennan on Nov 16, 2009 12:23 PM EST in News Comment 16 comments

Been a somewhat mad few days - the deadline for our Fear FIlm Festival has meant we've spent most of last week watching indie horror flicks, from the excellent to the...not-so excellent. Fortunately, not a lot happening on the Diamondbacks' front - I should mention that TWIDB entries will appear only on an "as needed" basis throughout the winter. The GM winter meetings proved largely bereft of significant actual Diamondbacks news - and I'd simply have ended up repeating Nick Piecoro's entirely acceptable coverage of the event. Which is what I'm about to do anyway. We're still kicking the tires on Livan Hernandez, but might also be looking at Randy Wolf; the team is interested in bringing back Augie Ojeda; it's not going to be easy to trade Chris Snyder.

Yeah, like I said: not much there worth starting the presses for, never mind stopping them. Still, after the jump, I'll unleash our crack research team, and see if there's anything we might have missed about the Diamondbacks of late.

The Silver Slugger went to Ryan Zimmerman of the Nationals, which probably counts as a mild traveshamockery. You're expecting some passionate plea in support of Mark Reynolds' candidacy for the award, no doubt - and he did have more home-runs. But despite the name, the award is not just about power, but all offensive numbers, an on that basis, should have gone to Pablo Sandoval. His OPS was more than fifty points higher than Zimmerman's, with a higher BA, OBP and SLG. Zimmerman (and, indeed, Reynolds) did have more RBI than Sandoval, but that's mostly due to the San Francisco offense, a.k.a. Pablo and the Seven Dwarfs. Here's the stats for the top five third-basemen in the NL, as measured by OPS+. See if you can work out how Zimmerman was superior.

Rk	Player	OPS+	Age	Tm	PA	R	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1	Pablo Sandoval	144	22	SFG	633	79	189	25	90	52	83	5	5	.330	.387	.556	.943
2	Ryan Zimmerman	131	24	WSN	693	110	178	33	106	72	119	2	0	.292	.364	.525	.888
3	Aramis Ramirez	131	31	CHC	342	46	97	15	65	28	43	2	1	.317	.389	.516	.905
4	Mark Reynolds	125	25	ARI	662	98	150	44	102	76	223	24	9	.260	.349	.543	.892
5	Casey McGehee	124	26	MIL	394	58	107	16	66	34	67	0	2	.301	.360	.499	.859

As noted in a fanpost, Dan Bickley has returned to flogging the Diamondbacks in his latest column, in part because of the idiotic comments apparently made by Colin Cowherd suggesting the D-backs be contracted [no doubt partly out of spite due to the situation with frequent show guest, Eric Byrnes]. "D-Backs in battle to stay relevant," says Bickley. Well, duh. Hello? It's the off-season? How "relevant" are the Cardinals in April? While there are some good points - an improvement over the usual Bickley nonsense - it still contains nonsense like, "Can we get Orlando Hudson back?" and "Ticket buyers have become scarce. With the Cardinals soaring and the Suns surging, this team better find some competitive traction soon."

Cardinals soaring? The team that requires an endless series of ticket-selling extensions to avoid TV blackouts? Suns surging? Hang on, not even two weeks previously, someone was writing in the Republic, "The way basketball was in Phoenix for the past four years [it] might never be again. With a new season barely under way, the Suns have embraced reality... They already have conceded that their impressive sellout streak will end Sunday.. More than 2,000 seats remain for the second home game of a new season... They likely will return to the playoffs. But will they ever recapture the magic? It will take many more victories...to challenge the football team, the one that painted the town from orange to red." Who was that writer, questioning the Suns' relevance? Ah, yes: Dan Bickley.

"Many more victories"? Try nine. For here we are, the 9-2 Suns are Bickley's darlings, and had a massive lead in the azcentral.com poll to determine the town's favorite team. Well, there's a shocker. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: sports fans in this state are about as loyal as a Van Buren hooker. There are so many front-runners, they could re-enact the Boston Marathon, and possess the sporting memories (plus, too often, the sporting knowledge) of a goldfish. The solution to the Diamondbacks' alleged lack of "relevance" is simple. Win more games. That's all it takes in Phoenix, and the fans will come flocking back, especially after the Suns and Cardinals are both one and done in the post-season. Now, how does the team win more games? Good question...

Andrew Kneeland takes a look at three signings the D-backs need to make to improve in 2010: Russell Branyan at 1B, leftie Jarrod Washburn for the rotation and Mike Gonzalez for the bullpen. Hmmm. Not so sure. Branyan is another left-handed 1B, and we already have that side of things adequately covered, in Brandon Allen and Josh Whitesell. Washburn's 3.78 AL ERA looks very nice, but was based on a .257 BABIP [his career average is .280], so he'll likely be over-valued this winter. He's also an extreme fly-ball pitcher, and we know how that plays at Chase. And a three year, $15m contract for a middle-reliever? Not my idea of where we should be spending the money. The last sentence of the piece, "He is an intern at the Green Valley News," explains a lot. Thanks for playing, Andrew.

Former Diamondback Orlando Hudson = not happy. In particular, not happy about Joe Torre, and the way their relationship imploded as the season went on, with Hudson seeing less and less playing-time. Said O-Dawg, "My teammates talked to me about it more than Joe did, but I never had any answers because (Torre) and I never talked. There was no conversation... I guess he felt I wasn't the man for the job if he wasn't putting me in there." Doesn't seem likely, based on this, that Hudson will be back in Chavez Ravine next season. I'm sure Bickley will be pleased by that.

Brandon Webb was seen at the PIR over the weekend, at the NASCAR races - not too much of a shock, where else would a good ol' Kentucky boy who loves hunting be? Even though the Diamondbacks do have a NASCAR connection - the Hall of Fame racing team is owned by former Arizona shareholders Jeff Moorad + Tom Garfinkel, and Panda Express CEO Tom Davin - we won't be seeing Webb on the track any time soon. He said "It's a little too dangerous for me out there. I'll stick to the mound."

Here's a name from past: Wally Backman. His tenure as Diamondbacks manager was among the shortest in major-league history, after unsavory incidents from his past came to light, and he was fired four days and zero games after being hired - possibly the low point of the nightmare which was 2004. Five and a half years later, he has finally made it back to a major-league organization. He did have a couple of spells in indie ball, but has now been hired as manager of the Brooklyn Cyclones, the Mets Single-A affiliate. I can't think of a more perfect organization for Backman.

I've been playing about with the enhanced Play Index feature over at Baseball-Reference.com, which now allows you to search in a variety of new ways. For instance, I found out that twice last season, the Diamondbacks used ten players in a game who were aged 25 or younger, on June 26 and July 4. [This week's trivia - how many of those young gentlement can you name? Between the two contests, there were a dozen in total] That's a number unmatched by any team in the majors - only the Padres and Braves managed more than eight - and is more evidence for the ongoing youth movement of the roster.

Speaking of B-R.com, in the past, we have sponsored various Diamondbacks there. These have included such illustrious names as Chris Snyder, Miguel Montero and Chad Tracy, as well as the not-quite-so illustrious ones of Dustin Nippert and Jailen Peguero. The departure of Yusmeiro Petit for pastures Pacific Northwestern means we had to look at putting our name on another page, and keeping ourselves in the ranks of supporters of this splendid reference site, alongside a couple of other posters here. But who should we pick? The ones available were somewhat limited, especially among the position players - we could get John Hester for $15, and that was about it.

Fortunately, things were a little more open on the pitching side. Though all the big names were locked up, we could still get Kevin Mulvey ($10), Bryan Augenstein ($5), Leo Rosales ($5), Blaine Boyer ($10) or Esmerling Vasquez ($5). However, in the end, we went for Billy Buckner at $10. He has a good chance to be in the rotation next year, and is also cheap. We like cheap. Something temporary has been/will be stuck up on the page as a placeholder, but I am entirely open to suggestions as to the text to go on the page. 255-character limit, so get your thinking caps on, folks. Mind you, this has likely condemned Buckner to injury, trade or abduction by aliens between now and Opening Day. Sorry, Billy.

[Answer to the trivia question: On June 26th, the ten players used by the Diamondbacks who were aged 25 or younger were: Montero, Upton, Reynolds, Parra, Young, Romero, Buckner, Zavada, Vasquez, Gutierrez. On July 4th, Petit and Scherzer (as a PH!) replaced Buckner and Vasquez.]

0 recs | Comment 16 comments | Share

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

"Billy

Buckner…no, not THAT one."

And Bickley is an idiot, as usual.

Can somebody please throw away this telephone?

by soco on Nov 16, 2009 1:26 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Geez

Bickley and Colin Cowherd, a collaboration between two of my least favorite sports commentators around.

"Spam headline: 'YOU ARE CHOSEN!' Oh, Morpheus, you're getting pretty lazy."
"Or they are informing you you are Jewish in a very lame conversion campaign."
"In either case, sending me spam is not the way to invite me to Zion."

by kishi on Nov 16, 2009 2:23 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Was

talking to a coworker (who used to work in the FSN truck) about Bickley today and we both agreed that he’s a Grade A Tool. Cowherd isn’t much better, especially when he’s deviating from the only thing he seems to have a basic understanding: football gambling.

Can somebody please throw away this telephone?

by soco on Nov 17, 2009 12:06 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Russell Branyon is a major league hitter

and neither Whitsell or Allen has demonstrated they are yet!

by dbacks watcher on Nov 16, 2009 3:39 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Russell Branyan

Is a guy who just had a career season in his thirties. Also vastly over-valued. This guy clearly wants us to make smart moves with our money this winter.

Most Depressing Math Question Ever courtesy of Probability class: "Clark and Anthony are two old friends. Let A be the event that Clark will attend Anthony's funeral. Let B be the event that Anthony will attend Clark's funeral. Are A and B independent? Why or why not?"

by IHateSouthBend on Nov 16, 2009 5:31 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

"Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good too. " ~Greg, age 8

by njjohn on Nov 17, 2009 11:17 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Who hit .222 vs LHP last season

We already have players capable of that. Admittedly, given he only earned $1.4m last season, we could do worse, but it doesn’t address the real problem at 1B – vs. LHP.

"Win, or die" -- Marquise de Merteuil

by Jim McLennan on Nov 16, 2009 6:06 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

WHOA

You can get hookers on Van Buren? If there’s a nearby crack house, I’m all set this weekend.

by venomfan on Nov 16, 2009 5:15 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Well written defense of Pablo. Hopefully Victor trolls over to see the generous even-handedness of it. You’re right. Special K was fantastic and it might be argued that his speed made him the better player overall last year, but it can’t be argued he was the better slugger. Zimmerman, on the other hand, is ridiculous with the glove, but in no way deserves this award (strange, by the way… usually adeptness with the bat buys players undeserving gold gloves, not vice versa).

"Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good too. " ~Greg, age 8

by njjohn on Nov 17, 2009 11:22 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

sniff, sniff cry

Why you got to come down so hard on Phx fans McLennan whimper cry? I’m a real fan sniffle

"Yeah I could have been king, but maybe I already am king. Hail to the king baby." Ash from Army of Darkness

by Turambar on Nov 17, 2009 3:07 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

hmm didnt think it would bold those

"Yeah I could have been king, but maybe I already am king. Hail to the king baby." Ash from Army of Darkness

by Turambar on Nov 17, 2009 3:13 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

In my defense...

First off, thanks for linking to my article at the GV News. It’s nice to know that someone reads my work.

In regard to Branyon, you say that you would rather play a platoon of Allen and Whitesell. Allen clearly isn’t ready to handle regular playing time at the major-league level, and Whitesell hit .194/.346/.287 last season in 46 games. They both have high upside — one obviously more than the other — but the Dbacks need a stopgap for 2010. Branyon had a career year last year, which isn’t good for a 33-year-old, but he still averages 30 HR per 162 games. When healthy, Branyan is an absolute masher.

You say that you wouldn’t sign Gonzalez because of his price tag. In my original article I put $4, $5, $6 million increments in the contract, which would allow for more financial flexibility at arbitration hearings this year and would expand as the payroll increases. Signing a reliever is always risky, but Gonzalez is one of the few proven relievers in baseball available on the free agent market. Arizona badly needs a bullpen arm, and the left-handed Gonzalez (career 2.57 ERA) could be that man. He would also cost a 2nd-round pick.

Washburn is the signing I’m the least comfortable with. He’s perfectly capable of either allowing 7 home runs per nine innings or sporting a WHIP close to 1.1. At $6 million, he’s clearly a risk, but outside of Bedard or Wolf, he’s one of the more inexpensive versions.

And I’m not sure how to respond to your “He is an intern” comment.

-Andrew Kneeland

Check out TwinsTarget.com

by Andersklasen on Nov 17, 2009 3:40 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

"An absolute masher"

Really? You’re talking about the same guy, who, in his career year at age 33 was ranked 19 out of 25 qualifying MLB 1Bs in OPS? I’m not sold on that one. Not at all.

In terms of Allen, I’m not sure if 104 PA’s in a rookie campaign qualifies him to be written off as not MLB ready. He’s already proven that he owns the minors, so extra time there isn’t going to be helpful to his development. And time spent as a backup would only stunt his growth. It seems like we need to see what we got with him. Especially on a team that isn’t likely to compete for the NL West next year.

In terms of Gonzalez and Washburn the question really is: do we think we can win this year? If so, perhaps they’d be helpful pieces. If not, I really don’t see what we’re gaining. And we could be losing a lot (financial flexibility required to sign Upton).

"Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good too. " ~Greg, age 8

by njjohn on Nov 17, 2009 4:45 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

A fly-ball pitcher like Washburn doesn’t seem like a good fit for the Diamondbacks, even if he is left-handed. I think the D’backs would be better off spending a little more for a higher quality SP. I agree that Gonzalez and Branyan could be useful parts if the price is right, but Branyan’s hitting style (low BA, high HR, high Ks, left handed) isn’t the best fit in my opinion.

by Amit on Nov 17, 2009 4:51 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Appreciate the response

You can’t really “platoon” Allen and Whitesell, since they’re both LHB. Allen, in particular, saw his overall numbers diluted by horrendous numbers against lefties – he was 2-for-22 with one extra-base hit and 11 K’s. Against right-handed pitching, and given his age, he did not badly at all. So, while I’m not averse to the idea of signing someone to platoon with Allen, it should be someone who can handle LHP – Branyan is a career .210 hitter against them, with a K:BB ratio worse than 4:1. Not the answer.

I don’t think the bullpen is quite the disaster area it seemed. In Qualls, Gutierrez, Zavada and Vasquez, we have the makings of a fairly solid 7-8-9 assortment, at a much lower cost. Now, we could certainly do with more depth, but as you say, Gonzales is among the best available relievers, and will get paid like it. If we want a lefty, I’d rather see us go after someone like Joe Beimel, who has been one of the best relievers in the game over the past few years. His 2009 salary was only $2m, though he is fairly fly-ball prone.

Yes, we’d like a left-handed starter, but Washburn will get more money this year than he deserves – he’s finishing a 4-year $37m contract., but at age 35 already, isn’t likely to get better. As noted previously, he’s also a flyball pitcher, and we just sent one of those to Seattle, thank you very much.

Sorry if the ‘intern’ comment came off snippier than intended. Overall, I think you were in the right areas as far as spending the money goes – 1B, bullpen, LHSP – but the specific examples of players were not so well thought-out. I’ll be going into the free-agent options a lot more, and seeing who I think we should aim for, as we start looking at the possibilities for 2010, beginning next week.

"Win, or die" -- Marquise de Merteuil

by Jim McLennan on Nov 17, 2009 6:07 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

It was great to read a new idea

Im with you in the spirit of a lot of these ideas. Seems everyone is in near agreement as to where we need to (or can) improve this year; SP,RP,1st.

The Gonzalez move is one I have advocated myself, though only if he plays into our hands. I would hope if we offer a reliever a 3 year deal, we’ll get it for under 15mil. There are a ton of closers out there as FA or trade offers. Personally, I would most prefer a cheaper one that will not demand to be the closer (I am completely comfortable with Qualls in that spot). But to have the relief corps as a strength, rather than just hoping they get through the seaosn, would be awesome. Side note: Gonzalez is now signed with Boras, with whom we have a fine relationship.

SP I see somewhat like RP; someone should probably fall into a value area due to the number of mid-back end level guys. Again, both in the FA market and available for trade. However, I would like to be more slightly more agressive here and get someone we want who will be something of a workhorse and play well in Chase. Penny could be a cheap alternative back there if all else fails, plus I would love to see him get back at the Dodgers.

1st base I want Overbay! Kill two birds with one stone; Snyder and 1st. Even if we have to slightly sweeten that deal with the Jays. I dont feel Allen is ready to step into that roll full time. A one year guy would be great.

And finally, I think AZ SHOULD be playing to win this year. The 1-2 that is Webb and Harren do not come around often, and it gives us a big leg up were we to make it to the post season. If we are out of the race, then we try to unload again and get some prospects like we did pretty effectively this last year.

Andrew, any new ideas are great fodder for conversation. Keep up the work.

by Counsellmember on Nov 17, 2009 7:40 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs