SnakeBytes, 6/23: Irked Edition

See?  I told you optimism never pays off.  And you guys just didn't listen.  Or maybe my sage warnings were drowned out by the sound of pain and torment that everyone let out when we went to the bullpen yesterday.  Either way, they were totally there. Not that we all didn't see tragedy coming when we went to the bullpen.

Recaps:

• [nj.com] For Yankees, Andy Pettitte 'really good' against guys not named Dan Haren - So, easy enough- next time we face Pettitte, we just legally change the names of all our players.  Simple.

• [azcentral.com] With Diamondbacks' Haren tiring Hinch went to bullpen, lost again - Hinch on pulling Haren: "We've taxed him pretty much every start. He hasn't really had a breather and I didn't really feel good about it." But why the pinch hitter, AJ?

• [nbcnewyork.com] Andy Pettitte Pays Back the Diamondbacks for 2001 - And yet we still won the World Series. Get back to us when the game means anything, Andy.

• [phoenixnewtimes.com] New York Yankees Turn the Tables on the Arizona Diamondbacks in 9-3 Win - My congratulations to the New Times for, as far as I noticed, managing to avoid any major misspellings or factual errors in this post.  Well played, sir!

Head past the jump for most stories and what's irking me today.

• [dbacks.com] D-backs' Ciriaco tabbed for Futures Game - Our AAA shortstop will be representing the Diamondbacks at the Futures Game in Anaheim next month.  Last year we sent Jarrod Parker and Leyson Septimo.

• [foxsportsarizona.com] D-Backs' starters working hard - I don't think any of us are surprised that Haren leads the majors in pitches thrown.  This is the danger of the bullpen, that they might not just botch this year, but that our starters might get worn down enough to hinder them in future seasons.

• [fangraphs.com] Upton’s Extremely Valuable Night - An interesting look at the "behind the scenes" of how some of the numbers we look at can change in one game.

• [hardballtimes.com] Checking in on the sophomores - A look at how eight players are doing in their sophomore campaigns in the majors, including Gerardo Parra.  They aren't very optimistic about how the RBI Machine has done this year.

• [bleacherreport.com] Los Angeles Dodgers Hot Stove: Examining the Trade Possibilities - Brandon Webb? Dan Haren? That noise you heard was NASCARbernet exploding in rage.

Okay, here's what bothers me: On the page we use to write these posts, we have a panel which gives us a lot of AP photos to use- that's where we get our fancy pictures that accompany our writing.  It's a great thing to be able to do, and I'm very appreciative of it.  But the annoying bit?  Flipping through the photos from last night's game, I find that I have as many photos of Dan Haren pitching last night (two) as I have pictures of Amar'e Stoudamire in a Yankees hat.  Now, if I want to give you a picture of Derek Jeter standing around the dugout, I've got options- four, to be exact.  I guess that's what the photographer thinks people want to see, really. 

Anyway, that's just a complaint for today.  It's a complaining type day, I guess, that's what the bullpen will do to your spirits.  Meanwhile, here's some more:

Around Sports:

• [bleacherreport.com] Sean Forman: Interview with the Mind Behind the Numbers at Baseball-Reference - Baseball-reference.com, the holy grail of stat sites.  I don't know about you guys, but I'm there about twice a day.  Bleacher Report has an interview with the man who founded and runs the site.

• [wsj.com] Hitting It Out of the Park Is No Big Deal in Lancaster - Lancaster was our High-A team until 2006.  We're probably better off now that they aren't.

• [thisisplymouth.co.uk] Curse of African witch doctor lifted from England squad by Cornish druid - England beat Slovenia to advance today, so obviously this tactic might work for the Diamondbacks. But we'll need the full range- druid, wizard, rogue for the traps. The Curse of the Diamondbacks Bullpen is an adventure designed for four seventh level characters.

• [wtsp.com] Rays owner Stu Sternberg talks about moving Rays stadium - A team saying they need a new stadium with vague implication of "or else we might move out of Florida"? Well, isn't this a surprising turn of events.
• [palmbeachpost.com] Florida Marlins fire manager Fredi Gonzalez -Hanley Ramirez must be thrilled.

• [fantasypros911.com] Top 10 Heaviest Players in MLB History - Two former DBacks make the list, as does a certain name that is probably surrounded in hearts on the inside covers of Mark Grace's notebooks.

• [espn.com] Former New York Mets player Wally Backman back with organization - Backman is managing for a minor league team in Brooklyn, his first managing job since the 2004 incident with the Diamondbacks.

Your Daily Strasburg:

• [washingtonpost.com] Guillen calls Strasburg "Starborough" - I don't know why, but I find Ozzie Guillen entertaining. Maybe because I only hear about him once a month, but something makes me laugh about a guy who's all about his own hype trying to act like he doesn't know about the Strasburg hype.

And those are your links for the day.  Rubber match of the series tonight, and then a travel day tomorrow means we don't have to deal with the bullpen on Thursday.  Which is fantastic, because I never could get the hang of Thursdays.  Here's to a good game tonight, and go DBacks!