SnakeBytes, 3/1: Smile Please Edition

Yeah, it's photo day today for the Diamondbacks, so everyone has been showing up with the hair brilliantly white and their teeth well-combed. Or something like that. There days, however, it's not just about getting your picture taken. Players also get their heads scanned for future use in official video games, and it's also used as a time for players to indulge in some bulk signage of memorabilia, such as baseballs. Between that and Joe Saunders' golf tournament this afternoon, I'm thinking there might not actually have been a great deal of spring training done today, but I'm sure Gibby will ensure they make up for that tomorrow...

More chit-chat and stuff after the jump:

Here's a video the Republic's Rob Schumacher took

Derrick Hall had the monthly chat online at Dbacks.com this afternoon. First question was about Miguel Montero and the reason for stopping negotiations. Interesting response from our President - emphasis added: "It is too bad, really, but best to not make it a distraction since we were a distance apart. We also let his representatives know that there are other players we would like to engage with regarding multi-year deals. This has been such a positive camp, we need to keep it that way." He did add later, "Our preference would be to have Miggy here for many years," but then said, "If that is not possible, we will find catching. Hmm.

Being a catcher is "the worst job", according to the players who spoke to Bob McManaman. Konrad Schmidt was probably the most forthright about the pain involved. "Yeah, we get abused,. And this week is terrible. We've got all these live BPs (batting practices), and it just wears you down. But you know, it kind of separates us and we take a little pride in it.... What we do isn't always very glamorous, but somebody's got to do it. I think we're appreciated." Well, Yadier Molina certainly, now has 75 million green, rectangular pieces of appreciation coming his way before the end of the decade....

Time for a Drew update - it's been a couple of days. He says, "I'm pretty much back to doing everything. I'm hitting. I'm fielding. I have good movement. "I'm doing pretty much everything I'm supposed to do. Now I just need to get rid of some of the residual of that accident." Kirk Gibson was even vaguer, "We don't have him on a timetable. When he's ready to play he's ready to play. We don't know [about Opening Day]. I have no idea. He's not close to playing in any games, I know that. He's got a lot of things to do before that. I mean, he's not even in everyday practice." Drew also reminds us that the original estimate was a year to recover, and it has only been seven months.

Tim Brown has a very good piece looking at the team, and the changes which have been wrought under new management: "The general manager, Kevin Towers, had come in at the end of that 97-loss disaster and couldn’t believe what he found. When he addressed the team for the first time in the clubhouse, some players couldn’t be bothered to be in uniform, or to look up from their iPads, or even to get up off the floor. "I’m not going to name names," Towers said." Very discreet, as you'd expect. However, I think it's probably safe to assume that most of the culprits in question are no longer to be found at Salt River Fields...

Bits and pieces

• Albaladejo adjusts - Nick Piecoro covers the journey of Jonathan Albaladejo from the Yankees AAA affiliate, to Japan and then back to Salt River Fields.
• Healthy again, D-backs' Young ready to go - "We all knew that he was hurt, but he was tough enough to try to go out there and grind it out," said Ian Kennedy. "For me, having him out in center field is very valuable. Just running things down. You saw how many times he saved my butt. You knew he struggled at the plate, but he didn’t want to get taken out."

Tweet of the Day goes to Josh Rawitch, the team's senior VP of Communications. The player's may have been taking it light today, but his staff stepped up the pace in truly epic fashion...

Our dept's @jimyers2 beat Casey Wilcox in race to eat 6 donuts, 2 cups of coffee and min on treadmill #spring training twitter.com/joshrawitch/st…

— Josh Rawitch (@joshrawitch) March 1, 2012