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Diamondbacks Spring Training Round-Up: #winning

Nice win yesterday, one that was largely easier than the 8-6 margin would suggest. Good pitching from Patrick Corbin and Charles Brewer, was the key, backed up by three-hit games from Eric Hinske and Adam Eaton. Let's hope for more of the same going forward.

By Jim McLennan

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"During this hour of live storytelling, you’ll hear five- to eight-minute first-person, true stories from members of the Arizona Diamondbacks organization and some of the journalists who cover them."
"During this hour of live storytelling, you’ll hear five- to eight-minute first-person, true stories from members of the Arizona Diamondbacks organization and some of the journalists who cover them."
@BertDbacks

Post-game thoughts

  • 'My timing is getting better in my mind. A couple of the hits might look like lucky hits, but in my mind there are no lucky hits. I got a chance to play in the first two games and I feel good. The only downside was the cold. Where's all my sunny Arizona weather?"
    -- Eric Hinske
  • ''Last year I came up and wanted to show them what I have and this year you have a definite goal in mind. 'I can relax and just try to be myself and show that I can be the guy.''
    -- Patrick Corbin
  • "I feel like I'm ahead of where I'm supposed to be at this point. My arm felt great, which is always a good thing. I know Gibby and Nagy want your fastball command to be there, and that's something I felt like today I had working for me."
    -- Corbin
  • "Patrick threw the ball well. He had great command, his slider was really good today, kept the ball down. Patrick's a great competitor, does a lot good. Just kept control of the game, he didn't really give them anything, made them earn everything they had."
    -- Kirk Gibson

McCarthy doesn't want more protection

Given what happened to him, you might think Brandon McCarthy would favor better protection for pitchers on the mound. You'd be wrong. "I’m just the biggest believer about that in so many aspects: Let adults be adults. It’s like smoking. Let people know, ‘Hey, this will kill you.’ But then go for it, man. That’s your choice. But don’t come suing us if it kills you. It’s the same with wearing helmets (in the field). If something goes wrong, don’t go sue Major League Baseball now. You assumed the risk by playing the game. That’s your choice. But I’m not a fan of mandatory rules like that. I’d rather just let people make their choice themselves. Be adults."

Pennington knows his role

Former manager Bob Melvin had words of praise for his former shortstop: "He’s one of those guys who’s going to do whatever he can to help the team win. When he gets comfortable, he can actually be a sneaky little leader. There are times when things are happening and I’m ranting and raving during a game, and he’s like, ‘What’s wrong, Skip?’ I’d say something to him, and he goes and takes care of it. He’s all about the team."

Pennington hit below the Uecker line through August 30, though did bat .282 after that point. "I couldn’t ever quite get out of it the way I wanted to until real late in the season, which was good for our team down the stretch. But at the same time, statistically at the end it wasn’t going to look the way that I wanted." He said he made some adjustments over the off-season, and believes they'll help him sustain that decent finish to the season. "It’s going to be beneficial once we get it all ironed out... I don’t want to label myself a defensive guy. Hopefully I play good defense, but I want to swing the bat, too."

A life in baseball

After the game on Tuesday afternoon, February 26th at Salt River Fields against the Oakland Athletics, spectators can hang around and hear Luis Gonzalez, team President Derrick Hall and GM Kevin Towers talk about their lives in the game. "During this hour of live storytelling, you’ll hear five- to eight-minute first-person, true stories from members of the Arizona Diamondbacks organization and some of the journalists who cover them." There's no additional ticket needed, you just have to move over to the seats along the third-base side. More details on Facebook.

Around MLB

  • Clefo talked a little bit about it in the video round-table, but here's the text from Jeffrey Loria's full-page advert to Marlins fans. Not so much building bridges to a disgruntled fanbase, as calling in an air-strike to destroy said bridges entirely with a volley of bunker-busters. The comments on the piece indicate how well Miami fans received the communique i.e. not at all. See also what our siblings at Fish Stripes had to say about the letter.
  • The Yankees' sorry off-season continued to suck harder, with Curtis Granderson getting his arm broken in his very first plate-appearance of the season. He's expected to miss ten weeks; that means the players who hit about two-thirds of all the Yankees homers last year won't be on the roster for Opening Day.
  • In the Cactus League, Matt Cain followed Clayton Kershaw in having a "meh" start. He lasted one inning, allowing four runs on four hits, but all of those were unearned. After outslugging the Reds yesterday, the Indians outpitched them today, one-hitting Cincinnati as Cleveland prevailed, 3-0. The best hitting came from the Royals, who overcame four errors with 17 hits, and beat the Rangers 7-5,

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