With the Fanfest yesterday, there wasn't any time to do a Snakebytes, so let's get caught up as we gallop towards pitchers and catchers reporting for the Diamondbacks, in about a week. It feels like the winter has flown by, but it still can't come quickly enough...

Top headlines

• [AZCentral] FanFest sets record with 25,000 attendance this year - "Anything you can do with the fans is good," Roberts said. "We don't want them to not know who they're cheering for." Probably not much chance of that with the Dread Pirate!
  
• [Fox Sports Arizona] Will Drew be ready for season? Nobody knows - "I'm not going to sit here and lie to your face and say, 'OK I'm going to be ready for opening day.' I can't tell you that right now. Nobody wants me out there hobbling," Drew said Saturday at the D-backs' Fan Fest at Chase Field.
• [dbacks.com] Justin Upton starts off hot in desert - "Bold imprints at a young age are one of the most thrilling aspects of baseball... Upton has certainly shown sustained flashes of this potential; and if we're all very lucky, his 2011 season might one day be viewed as the year that started it all. " Upton's early numbers are compared against some of the greats.

Other team news

• [dbacks.com] 2012 Promotional Schedule - I am particularly intrigued by June 23, which is both "Ian Kennedy Bobblehead" and "Martial Arts Night". I also note that a number of the Saturday games appear to be back to a 7:10pm start, instead of all being 5:10pm as last year. Interesting.
• [dbacks.com] 2012 Broadcast Schedule - 150 games plus three from spring training (3/13, 3/27 and 4/4). Six "D-backs Snapshot" programs, to feature Ryan Roberts, Daniel Hudson, Trevor Cahill, Jason Kubel, Willie Bloomquist and Paul Goldschmidt.
• [AZ Front Row] Should D’backs Fans Have High Expectations in 2012? - Why, yes. Yes, we should...
• [dbacks.com] Diamondbacks hurlers serve up Subway sandwiches - "As a precursor to this Saturday's Subway FanFest at Chase Field, three-fifths of the D-backs' starting rotation traded in their usual leather ball gloves for hygienic plastic ones for food handling as they took customer orders and made and bagged up sandwiches." Joe Saunders showed off his cutter, hohoho...

Prospects? Don't mind if we do...

• [dbacks.com] D-backs organization preview, Top 20 Prospects - "The Arizona Diamondbacks have reason to be excited about their farm system because they have future No. 1 starter Trevor Bauer making a quick path to the big leagues. Or maybe it's because they have future No. 1 starter Archie Bradley just starting out his pro career."
• [FanGraphs] D-Backs’ Ray Montgomery on Bauer and Bradley - "To say that scouting director Ray Montgomery is excited about those players is an understatement. You can’t blame him."
• [BALedger.com] Bradley gears for first true spring training - "Oh, those 14-hour bus rides," Bradley said, smiling. "Then, there was some of the ‘rookie hazing, too.’... There was a 7 a.m. mandatory breakfast, which you couldn’t miss. There were workouts and throwing everyday. Every game started at 7 in the evening. When that was done, you’d go to bed and start it all over the next day."

Former D-backs and other stuff

• [NJ.com] Yankees' Russell Branyan excited for the chance to bring bop to lineup - "My whole career has been a challenge," Branyan said. "No one said it was going to be easy, so you have to embrace it all. I’ve enjoyed the ups and I’ve enjoyed the downs."
• [Sacramento Bee] Rangers give Conor Jackson, Beimel minor league deals - Good luck, CoJack.
• [OpposingViews] Spring Training Changed Forever in 1992 - "When Hurricane Andrew did a number on Homestead, Florida, the youngest players training in Arizona this spring weren’t even born. Had that event not happened, a lot of them might be working out today in Florida."
• [Diary of a Diehard] Baseball and the Passage of Time - "Now we are starting to see the first a changing of the guard. Not just with the players but also with the fans. My own family is a prime example."