Oh, sure, it was rain over the weekend, but, well, the gang's all here. Yes, the whole team is now in camp, roughly 60 players, if my count is right- though that may just be the number of candidates to play first base. Or maybe that's how many links I have today- um, I may have gone a little overboard here. But, be strong, we'll make it through this together...
DBacks News:
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[AZ Central] Arizona Diamondbacks hope to build pitching foundation - With the core of young pitchers we've already seen pitch for the team, and the arms coming up in the minors, the team definitely could have a bright future based around strong pitching.
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[Diary of a Diehard] Upton Focused as Spring Training Starts - I'm a fan of Don Baylor, so I'm pretty excited to see what he can do for our offense. Justin Upton seems to be listening, too.
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[TheNatsBlog] Catching up with the Arizona Diamondbacks - Apparently Jim doesn't have enough to do writing for the 'Pit- he's also filling his spare time giving previews on the DBacks to other blogs, too.
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[Inside the D-backs] Happy Monday morning - A look at how Spring Training has started off for the DBacks. The word that seems to come up a lot? Swagger.
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[FanGraphs] Top 10 Prospects: The Arizona Diamondbacks - FanGraphs ranks our top prospects. Of the ten, seven were drafted by the DBacks in 2009, which they point out "gives you an idea of how empty the system was prior to the re-stocking."
More DBacks News:
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[KVOA.com] D-Backs-White Sox game to benefit Christina Green fund - Spring Training hasn't deserted Tucson entirely- on March 7, the Diamondbacks and the White Sox will play a game at Kino Veteran's Memorial Stadium, with the proceeds going to the Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Fund. Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning.
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[DBacks Venom] Diamondbacks Spring Training Recap - Week 1 | February - A pretty good summary of how the team's first week in training has gone.
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[DBacks.com] Lanky right-hander Kam Mickolio is trying to earn a spot in the D-backs' bullpen - Mickolio seems pretty happy at getting a chance to join a new club. "It feels like a fresh start; you get to meet new people, fresh eyes looking at you. You get to reinvent yourself, so to speak."
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[USA Today] Spring diary: Trying to play gracious host at home, in clubhouse - Joe Saunders is blogging about Spring Training for the USA Today- in the latest edition, he talks about balancing time for home and practice, and being one of the older, more experienced players on the pitching staff.
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[Babes Love Baseball] Season Previews: Arizona Diamondbacks - Ahem.
The Babes Love Baseball
Do previews in haiku form
This is the D-backs. -
[The D-blog] Blum, Hernandez Settling in for D-backs -The D-blog talks to two of our new faces this season.
Around the NL West:
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[Denver Post] Number Giambi among Bieber boys - So. Tulo and Juicer spent Saturday night watching Justin Bieber's movie. Guys, you're taking all the effort out of mocking you. (Gonzo was apparently there, too, but Gonzo's got kids, so I'll give him a pass. This time.) But Tulo's musical tastes continues to astound.
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[SignOnSanDiego.com] Will Cox strike a deal on Padres baseball? - While there is some frustration about the Diamondbacks games only being on FSN Arizona, that's still a better deal than San Diego has- Padres games are only aired on Cox cable. AT&T has been trying to get access to the games since 2008, but the FCC only made Cox start negotiating a couple months ago, and those negotiations don't seem to be going anywhere.
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[Fox Sports West] Five Questions as Dodgers Open Camp - The Dodgers are probably the most unsettled team in the division, after the Diamondbacks. Here's some of the questions they're facing this off-season, other than the McCourt divorce.
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[NBC Bay Area] How the Giants, Twitter Won the World Series - Well, who can forget when Twitter had that clutch two-run double to take the lead against the Rangers?
Around Baseball:
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[ESPN] Justin Morneau of Minnesota Twins to start on bench - 7 months after his concussion, Justin Morneau still isn't up to full speed. Kind of scary, really.
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[New York Times] Hank Steinbrenner Appears to Criticize Derek Jeter - Steinbrenner came out swinging today, saying the Yankees spent too much time "building mansions [...] and not concentrating on winning" last year, and then went on to complain about revenue sharing, complaining about it as socialism. I respect his opinion, because I know he worked hard and only got to where he is in life due to his skill and accomplishments.
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[MLB] MLB Dreamjob - A job covering baseball? Oh, man! But I don't know about the "move to New York City" thing- c'mon, MLB, I'm already right here for the All Star Game...
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[FanGraphs] The Worst Hitter in Baseball History - The only player since 1901 to put together a season of 250 or more plate appearances with an OPS+ of 10 or lower- and he did it three times? Ouch.
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[New York Times] Justine Siegal Gets Chance to Throw Batting Practice for Indians - An interesting story. I'm sure, at some point, a woman will play in the majors, but for now, this is as close as we've gotten.
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[Hardball Times] College bat modifications will improve the game - The new bats are expected to lead to a huge drop in home runs in college baseball. This could make the college game into a much different creature- possibly more similar to the majors?
Okay, I think that's enough links to hurl at you for today. Come Wednesday, we'll see if there's enough to put up to make another SnakeBytes worthwhile.