So, we end the road trip 2-3. Not great. But not terrible. I think I'll take this time to focus more on the positives of the two wins, rather than the negatives of the three losses. We've made some good contact at the plate, even if things haven't fallen our way. Our starters have been solid. Our bullpen has shown some good spirit. We've taken advantage of the other team's mistakes.
Yeah, not entirely terrible.
Recaps
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[DBacks.com] Young's efforts back Galarraga in debut win - Armando Gallaraga was pretty happy to see Chris Young's great work in the outfield. "That's a key for pitchers like me. I'm not a power pitcher, so it was really nice when I got those two catches in the first inning. It gave me more momentum, I could be more aggressive."
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[FSN Arizona] Young excels with glove and bat, Arizona beats Cubs - Kirk Gibson spoke to the team before the game. "I just kind of reaffirmed some of the things we worked on play the way they're capable of," he said of his pregame speech. "Go out and play loose, play aggressively. Have fun playing the game, that's what we did."
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[Bleed Cubbie Blue] Wet, Cold And Ugly. That's Cubs Baseball Today: 6-4 Loss To Diamondbacks - On top of the pitching injuries, the Cubs have to be worrying a bit about attendance. "The announced crowd was 32,272; about half that many, maybe 15,000 or so, were actually in the ballpark.[...] And if they can't right the on-field ship and play better than this... that 18% drop could become season-long."
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[AZ Central] Arizona Diamondbacks' Barry Enright aims to boost mound aggressiveness - Barry got hit hard in his first few innings, but he seemed to adjust well enough as the game went on. Look, the guy may not be the greatest pitcher, but he fights out there, and I can't help but appreciate that.
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[Green Valley News & Sun] DUGOUT: D-backs continue to botch development - While I don't disagree that I think the team would have been better off if they had shown some patience with our minor league system, do you really want to pick Sergio Santos, Chris Snyder, and Jason Bulger as the top prospects that who were going to bring back excitement to the fanbase? Also, since the front office is pretty different from what it was a year ago, let alone in 2004, this is hardly a timely complaint.
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[DBacks.com] Heilman refocuses on familiar role - Heilman acknowledges he didn't throw as well as he'd like in Spring Training, but at least he's ready for the bullpen. "That's not a problem for me. I know what to expect."
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[Visalia Times-Delta] Rawhide critical to new D-back GM's long-term plans - Kevin Towers is going to spend a lot of this year evaluating our minor league system, planning for the future, and our Class-A team in Visalia may well deserve a lot of attention. How much of that roster represents what we'll see starting in Chase Field in three or four years?
Around Baseball:
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[Yahoo! Sports] Juiced baseballs are a tightly wound myth - The downside of the internet- every single person who randomly decides that MLB has made some change in the game now can try to tell every other person in the country. On a completely unrelated point, I'm starting to believe that MLB has attached tiny rockets to Willie Bloomquist's shoes in order increase excitement in DBacks games. Tell your friends.
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[FanGraphs] Shutdowns, Meltdowns, and Saves - We all know that saves and blown saves don't necessarily tell us much more about a pitcher than wins and losses do. Unsurprisingly, Fangraphs has an alternative for us- shutdowns and meltdowns, based of WPA. It looks like a potentially decent stat that could help point out the middle relievers who are doing good work.
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[SI.com] Not time to panic for Rays, Red Sox and Astros -- but it's close - Isn't worrying about the first five games of the MLB season a lot like starting to panic at halftime of the first game of the NFL season?
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[Big League Stew] Fashion Ump: Minor league team unveils reversible rally caps - I don't know, if I was a player, I might be creeped out to look in the stands and see those big, fake eyes staring at me. Of course, if it creeps out the opposing team, mission accomplished...