Yovani Gallardo RHP, 2-4, 4.62

Ian Kennedy RHP, 3-4, 4.47

Last time these two met, the same two pitchers were facing off in Game 5 of the 2011 NLDS, which ended up being a pretty epic confrontation, albeit one which the bad guys won. As ZM pointed out, neither side has exactly set the baseball world on fire in their quests to repeat as champions of the NL Central and West. Both teams will see this as a chance to right the ship and head in the intended direction. Only one will be right.

Line-up - but no Sixty Million Dollar Man - after the jump.

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• 1980: Two of our starting line-up (Kubel and Young) were born today, but let's go with a third D-back, the late, fairly lamented Scott Hairston. He was a third-round draft-pick in 2001, and was originally a second-baseman, starting 83 games there for us in 2004. The errors there forced a move to the outfield, and at one point looked like he could become a useful fourth man in the Arizona outfield, behind Chris Young, Justin Upton and Carlos Quentin. Then we re-signed Eric Byrnes instead.

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Jon Morosi is reporting the Arizona Diamondbacks and Miguel Montero have agreed on a five-year $60 million contract extension.

Source: #DBacks and Miguel Montero agree on five-year, $60 million extension. Press conference expected Saturday.

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) May 25, 2012

If confirmed, the deal would keep Montero in an Arizona jersey through 2017. It plugs an obvious hole in the Diamondbacks line-up, with Montero becoming a free-agent at the end of the season, and no immediate obvious prospects in the farm system. Buster Olney states the deal does not include any no-trade clause.

The sides had been negotiating a deal before the season, but broke off to concentrate on the season. However, talks appear to have started up again in the past few days. The deal is for an additional year, and a great deal more money, than the four-year $32 million deal the Diamondbacks were apparently offering during spring, but is also short, on a per-year basis, of the five-year $75 million contract recently signed by Yadier Molina.

More thoughts and analysis after the jump.

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Let's hope the results are every bit as satisfying as the last time the Brewers were in town. Goldschmidt grand-slam? Don't mind if I do.

Previews

• [AP] Brewers-Diamondbacks Preview - "Milwaukee's franchise-record 96 wins and Arizona's worst-to-first turnaround in the NL West from 2010 were great stories last season, but it's been a different story for both in 2012." No kidding.
• [Brew Crew Ball] Series Preview #16: Talking Diamondbacks with AZ Snakepit - As if doing our preview wasn't enough, ZM also helped BCB out with theirs.
• [FOX Sports] Brewers-Diamondbacks Preview - "We didn't want to lose him, but we wish him well," Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said of Cody Ransom, now a Brewer. "We just wish him not too well against us."

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Before last year, I really didn't think a whole lot about the Brewers. I don't mean that in a condescending or dismissive way, they just weren't a team a team that occupied a ton of my attention as a Diamondback fan. They weren't a natural rival, they didn't have any truly abhorrent players, and they were neither consistently good enough to command a ton of national attention or consistently bad enough to warrant any pity. I suspect many of you felt the same way, and honestly I'd imagine that most Brewer fans felt the same way about the Diamondbacks. The two teams just sort of existed off of each other's radars.

Then last year happened. Let's revisit 2011 in Brewers/D-Backs relations:

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Record: 6-7 - Home: 6-2 - Road: 0-5

• 1972: Danny Bautista born. There wee a few possible candidates, but the others were too depressing for one reason (Joe Kennedy) or another (Brad Penny). Bautosta arrived from the Marlins in a June 2000 trade for Andy Fox, and stayed with us through 2004. He's still second on the all-time franchise list for batting average, at .296 over 456 games for the D-backs. However, his defense was pretty bad, and over those four seasons, he had a -1.1 bWAR for us, and retired before the 2005 season with an ankle injury.
  

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This is Pit Your Wits. It is a frivolous activity, designed to distract the easily distracted away from the emptyness and pointlessness of your fragile existences as you just sit on a rock burning through space YOUR LIVES HAVE NO MEANING! ABANDON ALL HOPE.

/slap

*ahem* Sorry about that. Anyway, last week our challenge was to bemoan Willie Bloomquist's slumping ways. Since that was posted, he has seemed to start raking. PIT YOUR WITS IS THE OFFICIAL SLUMPBUSTER OF THE ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS. NO MAN SHOULD HAVE THIS MUCH POWER.

After the jump, results and stuff.

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