Dbacks Ups and Downs: Trends from 6/6 through 6/20

Geez, you go in the hospital and then to Florida and all of a sudden it's two weeks later! And what's changed? Well... not much. The Diamondbacks are still nine games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and still below the .500 mark. However, they did have a 5-game winning streak, and they did see the .500 mark a few times. But have they made enough progress to be considered still in the hunt?

Read on to see how all the Diamondbacks have done the past two weeks.

Starting Rotation
Player	Trend	Notes
Ian Kennedy		Well, Ian's first start after the birth of his second daughter did not go as well as his first daughter's birth last year, but that's hard to repeat! Kennedy had a tough outing in Texas, but bounced back with 8 innings pitched and 2 earned runs in Los Angeles, yet got the loss due to lack of offense. Still, he's not quite the ace we expect him to be.
Wade Miley		Miley continues to make the most of every start he receives in the major leagues. In each of his past three starts, he pitched at least 7 innings and allowed only one run (for a cumulative ERA of 1.19). He was a little lucky Monday against Seattle when he allowed 9 hits, but he struck out 8 batters to minimize the damage. Wade is impressive!
Daniel Hudson		It is really disappointing to see Hudson struggling. Hudson was pulled in the second inning against Oakland having allowed 6 runs. He rebounded a little bit with a quality start (7 IP / 3 ER) in Texas, but had a hard time facing Seattle in Tuesday's high-scoring game. Huddy is on a downward slope that only he and the pitching coaches can fix....hopefully...
Trevor Cahill		For a sinkerball pitcher, Cahill is sure getting a lot of strikeouts! In Trevor's last three starts, he's struck out a total of 20 batters. Cahill had excellent outings against Oakland (7.1 IP / 2 ER / 7 Ks) and in Los Angeles (7 IP / 0 ER / 8 Ks). But in yesterday's second high-scoring game with the Mariners, Cahill gave up 6 runs in 6 innings. Still, I think Cahill is pitching like the pitcher we need him to be.
Joe Saunders		Joe has done what we expect of him, and that is to keep the team in the game. In each of his last two starts, he pitched 6 innings and allowed a single run and 2 runs. He took the loss in Anaheim because of one bad pitch to Mark Trumbo which went over the wall; it wasn't his fault he opposed Ervin Santana in a near-perfect outing!
Bullpen
Player	Trend	Notes
Craig Breslow		Breslow's last three appearances (one inning each) have all resulted in runs, and all were earned. Breslow's home run Tuesday night also scored two inherited runners. All of his outings resulted in the team being farther behind than when he entered. That does not an up arrow receive.
Josh Collmenter		Collmenter was the mop-up man after Hudson struggled against the A's, and all he did was throw 3.1 scoreless innings with 6 strikeouts. He also pitched a scoreless 8th inning Monday night against the Mariners. All of you (us) "He should be in the bullpen" naysayers from last season might have been right...
David Hernandez		Hernandez had a lot of work in the past two weeks, and overall it was positive. He allowed only two runs of his own in 6.1 innings pitched. Unfortunately, one of those runs blew the lead Tuesday night, but he rebounded and struck out the side in the 9th inning Wednesday afternoon.
J.J. Putz		Did anybody think sending J.J. out for a second inning against the M's Tuesday night was a good idea? Anybody? No, I didn't think so. In four outings the past two weeks, he earned one win, one save, and one loss. I'm choosing to let the four good innings outweigh the awful few Mariner batters in extra innings.
Bryan Shaw		Bryan Shaw has done really well recently, not having any multi-run outings in the month of June. He allowed one run against the A's but struck out a trio of Angels. His sub-1.5 ERA the past two weeks is a good sign that maaaaybe he's stabalizing. Yet, every time I think that...
Mike Zagurski		Ohhh Zagurski. What to do with you. He had been doing alright, with a few short appearances here and there. But today he was called upon to hold an 8-run lead and gave up 4 runs. His biggest issue, though, may have been his mental lapse when he forgot to cover first base on a groundout to Goldschmidt. You can be sure Gibson made a note of that.
Brad Ziegler		Ziegler has gone from consistently good to mediocre to hot-and-cold. Brad has an ERA of 6.23 in the last two weeks, and of course that doesn't include 3 of 4 inherited runners he allowed to score (including J.J.'s runners in Tuesday's heartbreaker). It has not been a good two weeks for Ziegler, although he did find the autographed Justin Bieber baseball card...
Starting Lineup
Player	Trend	Notes
Willie Bloomquist		Well, it's not .409, but Willie continues to get on base for his team. Bloomquist only had one 0-fer in the past two weeks, and that was the Santana game. Willie did score 6 runs but only had 2 RBI.
Ryan Roberts		Roberts and Josh Bell are still splitting the time at third base, and Roberts is doing just alright in the role. He had a big game against Texas, Oakland, and of course the inside-the-park home run and 3 RBIs yesterday against Seattle, but he's still only hitting .245 on the season.
Justin Upton		You know you're having a bad week when Aaron Hill is intentionally walked ahead of you to load the bases and all you can do is strike out swinging. The amount of "so-and-so's [stat] is higher than Upton's [stat]" lines you can think of is growing by the day. Although Upton did hit .295 the past two weeks, he only had 4 RBIs, and he had 16 strikeouts in only 11 games. Ouch.
Miguel Montero		Technically, Big Mig's average over the last two weeks is lower than Upton's, but it doesn't feel like Montero is hitting as poorly because of his other numbers - 7 walks, 13 RBIs, and 4 home runs! His strikeouts are a bit high but if he can actually hit for power in the role Upton is supposed to be in, we can probably deal.....
Chris Young		We knew Young wouldn't immediately return to hitting .400 returning from the disabled list, but did we really think he'd hit .148 / .250 / .443?? Chris had only 6 hits with 12 strikeouts his past 12 games. Come on CY, you have to get it together or else Parra is going to get more and more starts in CF...
Jason Kubel		Kubel made all 11 starts in left field the past two weeks, and boy is he deserving of it. He is hitting .33333333 the past two weeks, with a home run and 12 RBIs. His hits seem to come in bunches - 3-for-5, 2-for-4, etc. Jason is doing his part offensively, and he's had several assists defensively recently as well.
Paul Goldschmidt		Goldy has really turned it around from those "ZOMG HE SHOULD GO TO RENO" days of panic. Remember those days? Never mind, let's not. Like Kubel, Goldschmidt's big days come in bunches - 3-for-4, some 2-for-5s, etc. He hit over .300 the past few weeks with 9 RBIs.
Aaron Hill		Can I give Hill 3 or 4 up arrows?!? Holy cow! The last time I wrote about trends, I said I was worried about Hill's offense. Now he's making a case to go to the All-Star Game! Sure, he's hitting .408 with 11 RBIs, but the good news is that came with only 4 strikeouts, which most likely means even his outs are hard-hit balls. Not only did Hill hit for the cycle in Monday's win, he hit a homer and a double in three games in a row. He was intentionally walked to get to Justin Upton! The man is seeing a baseball like it's a beach ball, and it's truly fun to watch.
Bench
Player	Trend	Notes
Josh Bell		Another trends, another time period where Bell is hitting under .200 - .190, his average is this time, with a .227 OBP and .513 OPS. His one good outing was a 2-for-4 Monday night against Seattle, which is when he got his one RBI in eight games.
Henry Blanco		In the past two weeks, Henry started two games and went a combined 0-for-5. What more can you say?
Gerardo Parra		Parra is scuffling lately, and as a result, he's hitting pretty low in the lineup. Or perhaps the correlation goes the other way around? Parra has only had 6 hits these past two weeks, yet two of those were home runs. His strikeouts and walks are reasonable, though, so maybe he'll come about soon.
John McDonald		With Hilly and Willie so hot right now, it's not surprising to have McDonald on the bench most of the time. He had one hit back in Colorado, but was 2-for-4 with a home run in yesterday's slugfest.
Lyle Overbay		Again, with Goldy doing so well offensively and defensively, Overbay doesn't play as much. Yet in his past three games, he's hitting .556 with 4 RBIs. He has a hit in every game he's played in for June.
Disabled List
Player	Trend	Notes
Geoff Blum		Blum has started a rehab assignment with the AAA Reno Aces. He is hitless so far in his first four games.
Stephen Drew		Drew is reaching the end of his rehab assignment - they only get 20 games with minor league clubs. He finally played in three games in a row, and Kirk Gibson has hinted at bringing him back in a reduced role to start.
Takashi Saito		Saito's first few outings in minor league rehab went alright, he pitched a few scoreless innings... and then he pitched in Colorado Springs and gave up 4 hits and 2 runs in 0.2 innings pitched. He gave up a home run on June 14th, and that's the last numbers we've seen on Saito...

Stats run from 6/6-6/20.