Name: Bryan Shaw
Age on Opening Day: 23
Salary: $414,000 (pro-rated portion)
2011 stats (MLB): 33 games, 28.1 IP, 2.54 ERA, 24:8 K:BB
2010 stats (Double-A Mobile): 33 games (13 GS), 101.1 IP, 4.26 ERA, 75:43 K:BB

In 2010, the Arizona bullpen was a disaster. What's that? Tell you something that's new? If you insist...

Much of the credit for Arizona's bullpen renaissance in 2011 has been given to GM Kevin Towers and three of his key acquisitions - J.J. Putz, David Hernandez, and Joe Paterson - and rightfully so. However, I'd like to take a brief moment from handing out the deserved praise to the current regime and take a look back, giving some appreciation to former D-backs scouting director Tom Allison. Thankfully, Allison hasn't been completely forgotten - I'm sure some remember Nick Piecoro's article on Allison from last October.

Still, one could argue that the impact of a great scouting director is nearly as significant for a franchise as the value of a great GM. After all, a GM can only make decisions in a free-market system, hoping to squeeze small margins of extra value out of any given move. A scouting director and his staff are given the luxury of working in a highly-controlled system in which costs are deflated by the league, and thus have the potential for values to vastly exceed costs on a regular basis. Allison drafted and signed several key pieces of Arizona's 2011 campaign and future, including seven players who debuted in the majors in 2011: Paul Goldschmidt, Wade Miley, Collin Cowgill, Josh Collmenter, Jarrod Parker, Ryan Cook, and, of course, Bryan Shaw.

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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.

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Let's get this party started. It's a whole different vibe to an off-season when you come off a division title. Sure, every winter, you look forward to spring, but the feeling for Arizona fans this winter is definitely skewed more towards expectation than hope. That was apparent in the massive turnout for the FanFest at Chase Field this morning: estimates were that anywhere up to 25,000 fans were present, which would be double the number from last season. S'funny what winning does for fan interest!

Needless to say, the SnakePit was there, representing like a....representing thing. Whatever that means. Pics and commentary after the jump.

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According to ColorWerx and Chris Creamer's sportslogos, the Diamondbacks will be sporting a new primary logo in 2012. Let's see, shall we?

...The D-Backs made a minor change to their graphics for 2012 - the primary mark is now just the "A" mark - sans the wordmark. The "A" plus the wordmark is still part of their graphics package however.

Conspiracy time!!!

The Diamondbacks are now the only team in the National League with a primary logo that is free of any script. They join a small clan from the American League - the Red Sox, Tigers, Indians, and Angels - as the only teams in baseball that have a simplified logo.

Welp, looks like we're off to the AL.

It's here! Today is kinda like Groundhog Day for the baseball fan, marking the end of winter and the beginning of spring. We'll shortly be heading off to have breakfast somewhere downtown, then making our way over to Fan Fest at Chase Field for the annual celebration of D-backs baseball. We're a bit more tech savvy this year - I'm not saying my last mobile phone was old, but it had a rotary dial... [Kids, ask your grandparents for clarification if necessary] So I'll be adding comments here over the course of the day, live from Chase, and check out the SnakePit Twitter feed for pics from the event.

If you're there too, feel free to chip in with your take. Get anything cool at the yard sale? Chat to any players? Do the clubhouse tour? It will, I'm sure, be a lot of fun. There'll be a full report later in the day, naturally. See you there!

Name: Joe Saunders
Known Aliases: Bazooka Joe, Colonel Saunders, Abrananaham Lincoln (aka The Great Potassiumancipator)
Age on opening day: 29
Salary: $5,500,000
2011 stats: 33 games, 212.0 IP, 3.69 ERA, 12-13, 108:67 K:BB
2010 stats (total: 33 games, 203.1 IP, 4.47 ERA, 9-17, 114:64 K:BB

Is there any player on the Diamondbacks roster who split the fans quite so much as Joe Saunders did? 2011 was Saunders's first full season in an Arizona uniform, and the reactions to his arrival- and the subsequent expectations- were probably heavily influenced by the memory of Dan Haren's dreamy blue eyes and crafty delivery, and echoing recollections of being told that Joe knew how to win. A rough situation for a pitcher, no doubt, especially given a fanbase that was looking forward to the season with a healthy dose of cynicism and just perhaps a tinge of fear.

But we all know how the 2011 season turned out for the Diamondbacks- would Joe be that lucky? He was a constant source of debate through the whole season, but Joe Saunders didn't seem to know it was going on. He just kept his head down, pitched his game, and did his part to help the team with the division.

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