Record:
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1974 Russ Ortiz born. The Huge Manatee is Exhibit A for those who think wins are necessarily an accurate reflection of a pitcher's skill. Before coming to Arizona, he had a 103-60 record with the Giants and Braves. After signing a $33 million contract with the Diamondbacks in 2004, he went 10-29 with a 6.64 ERA, and pitched badly enough that we ate 2 1/2 years of the contract. Here's the discussion on BTF about the signing. Someone surprising pops up in defense of it in the comments...
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2000. The Arizona Diamondbacks drafted Brandon Webb in the 8th round of the amateur draft. He signed the next day. That same round hasn't been bad for us: we had also snagged Chris Capuano the previous year, got Brandon Medders the next one, and our current first-baseman, Paul Goldschmidt, came out of the same section of the draft in 2009. Of course, there were also plenty of busts between Medders and Goldzilla - where is Ryan Schreppel now, having vanished from the game after two mediocre years in A-ball. We'll see where this year's pick, Evan Marzilli, ends up.
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2006: And while we're speaking of Webb, he established a club record with 30 consecutive scoreless frames, getting a no-decision in a 4-3 loss at Philadelphia. We had taken a 3-0 lead, as part of which Luis Gonzalez hit his 515th career double, tying Joe Cronin for 34th on the all-time doubles list. However, Webb gave up two in the sixth and one in the seventh to tie things, then Brandon Lyon gave the Phillies the lead on a Mike Lieberthal double in the eighth, and they closed things out from there. Johnny Estrada went 4-for-4 for the Diamondbacks, raising his season average to .325.
- 2011: Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory snatched from defeat. The D-backs were 4-0 down to the Nationals in the middle of the eighth, but rallied, and forced extra innings on an RBI groundout by Xavier Nady with one out in the ninth. Unfortunately, Joe Paterson allowed a bases-loaded walk then a grand slam to Michael Morse in the 11th inning, and Washington beat Arizona 9-4 at Chase. Kelly Johnson and Chris Young had two hits apiece for the Diamondbacks, and Ian Kennedy allowed one run over seven innings, on five hits and three walks, with three strikeouts.