Diamondbacks Ups and Downs: August 26th-31st

Moving this back to Thursdays the rest of the season - there seemed to be less going on, SnakePit-wise than on Friday, and with today being an off-day, it doesn't actually make any difference to this week's stats, so seemed an ideal opportunity. Obviously, a pretty good week for Arizona: we swept the home-stand, enjoying our best run in more than eight years, and outscored the opposition 32-9. Fortunately, a rush shipment of green arrows arrived at SnakePit Towers yesterday, so we're well stocked for this week's report. Though with a team ERA of 1.33, the standards among pitchers might be a little tough this week...

Rotation	Trend	Notes
Ian Kennedy		Kennedy has now won nine of his last ten games with a 2.35 ERA in that time - the tenth was the rain-shortened outing in Philadelphia. Seven innings, one run this week - and Kennedy also walked none, for the first time since April 25.
Daniel Hudson		Seven shutout innings from Hudson, blanking the Rockies on three hits and three walks, while striking out eight - he settled down nicely after a slightly shaky early spell, and retired the last eleven batters faced.
Joe Saunders		Good to see Saunders get his first win of August, holding San Diego to an unearned run over seven frames, on four hits and a walk. By Game Score, this was his best outing since June. Tomorrow's game against SF might be his most important since the 2009 playoffs.
Josh Collmenter		Two starts, two wins, a 1.59 ERA and no walks in 11.1 innings. Only one pitcher in the NL with more than 70 IP has a better walk-rate than Collmenter's 1.66 per nine - a guy called "Ray Holiday" or something. Think he plays in the East. Vaguely heard that, anyway.
Wade Miley		Sorry, Wade. You had the worst ERA of any of our starters this week, by more than 1.40 runs. I'm afraid 3.00 just isn't going to cut it. Scattered nine hits, but held the Rockies to two tallies over six frames. One walk. All told, Arizona's K:BB ratio this week was 40:7 in 54 IP.
Bullpen
J.J. Putz		Three save opportunities, three saves, one hit, no walks and four strikeouts in 2.2 innings. One hit allowed since August 12, over six innings - that's an opponent's BA of .056.
David Hernandez		Allowed a run. This is entirely unacceptable. I was assured he was never going to do that, for the rest of his career. And to Dexter Fowler too. Hang your head in shame, David.
Bryan Shaw		The 23-year old has got his ERA down to three, allowing one run in four appearances this week. The resulting ERA+ of 134 is 11th in the majors for pitchers his age (min 20 IP).
Micah Owings		The closest to a genuine down-arrow, allowing five hits in 2.1 innings, but in any other week would likely have got a flat-line. This week, his 3.86 ERA was tied for the club worst.
Joe Paterson		Has appeared in 55 games without getting a W - only the Cubs' Justin Berg (60) and Cesar Ramos (68) of the Padres/Rays have more among players in the majors this season.
Brad Ziegler		Warming. Brad has retired the last ten batters he has faced, throwing two perfect innings over his three appearances this week.
Zach Duke		Finished off Sunday's 6-1 victory over the Padres, with a clean ninth, but that was his only action in the past week.
Starters
Miguel Montero		Founder member of the Justin Upton Protection Society - in back-to-back games against Colorado, followed a plunking of J-Up by hitting a three-run homer. Hit .333 with seven RBI overall, though hasn't walked since August 21.
Paul Goldschmidt		While Goldy batted .235 for the week, he had some really hard-hit outs, and has cut back on the K's with only two strikeouts in his last 25 PAs, alongside three walks. Still a work in progress, but the key word there is "progress".
Aaron Hill		Lead the team in hits last week, with ten, giving him a line of .435/.480/.739, which is certainly acceptable, and has also showed solid defense. We have an $8m option for next season; if this performance keeps up, we might want to look into that.
Willie Bloomquist		Regained his spot in the line-up from McDonald, and the break seems to have helped, as Willie went 6-for-15. Still not convinced he should be batting lead-off, and a SB ratio of 15:9 remains more problematic than helpful.
Ryan Roberts		Went 4-for-16, but had more walks (6) than K's (3) or hits, raising his OBP to a crazy-good .455 for the week. Lob in a lead-off home-run, and his OPS ended up at .955, which is more than acceptable.
Gerardo Parra		Gold Glove Parra? Certainly deserves consideration: 10 assists trails only CarGo among NL outfielders, and he also made some highlight reel catches. Oh, yeah: he also went 7-for-18 with four extra-base hits.
Chris Young		Hitting 4-for-17 and a home-run, gave CY a .728 OPS for this period, which is about what you'd expect. Only a couple of walks, but he still leads the team there this season, with 63. Roberts (60) is the only other Diamondbacks to have passed 50 thus far.
Justin Upton		Only four hits for J-Up, but with four walks and a couple of painful free passes, his OBP still reached .400, and the OPS sat at .832. His defense was the usual mix of the spectacular and the wince-inducing.
Bench
John McDonald		Only started two of the week's six games, losing playing time back to Bloomquist. McDonald went 1-for-8, which won't get him more starts.
Collin Cowgill		A lovely four-hit game, and 6-for-11 overall. Cowgill raised his batting average 80 points from where it was on Saturday night.
Sean Burroughs		3-for-7, and nice to see him with a key hit last night against Colorado, driving in a very welcome insurance run. Season average is now .271, so no longer a problem.
Lyle Overbay		Still struggling, now has one hit in more than two weeks, over 16 at-bats. How is Juan Miranda doing in Reno? Hitting .238? Dammit.
Henry Blanco		A typical Blanco week: one game, four at-bats.