SnakeBytes 8/20: The Hunt for the Reds (and October)

Quotes of the Day

"We're hoping to win the next three - that's our goal."

- Catcher Wil Nieves after the Diamondbacks the first game of a four game series against the Reds.

"We just missed some balls down the middle. You miss with some fastballs down the middle and they're going to put some hits together."

- Nieves on starter Randall Delgado's command issues Monday night.

Diamondbacks News

Grit Index: D-backs, Delgado fail to overcome big inning, fall to Reds ArizonaSports.com

After taking the rubber match in an important series against the NL Central-leading Pirates, the Diamondbacks dropped the first of four against the Cincinnati Reds, who lead the Snakes in the Wild Card Race by 6 games.

Eaton gets chance to play in front of family, friends | dbacks.com: News

Monday night was a homecoming of sorts for Adam Eaton, who grew up an hour and a half way from Cincinnati in Springfield, Ohio. Eaton supplied 25 tickets for friends and family, but estimated he would have around 100 supporters at final tally. "It was nice to have a little cheering section on the road," Eaton said of the experience.

Montero catching for first time in rehab stint | dbacks.com: News

A bit of good news in Miguel Montero's recovery from the lower back strain that's plagued him for the last few weeks. Montero made a rehab start behind the plate Monday night in an Arizona League game.

Corbin, D-backs look to bounce back against Reds

Can Patrick Corbin play stopper yet again, and lead the Diamondbacks to a much needed win? He's been doing it all season, surpassing expectations at every turn, so there is little reason to doubt the young lefty.

Arizona Diamondbacks' Patrick Corbin holding up despite high inning totals

Speaking of Corbin, the young starter has held up well despite a massive spike in innings. Last year Corbin threw just over 180 innings, this year he's on pace for well over 200. Excuse me while I go knock furiously on wood.

Around the League

Baseball Prospectus | Baseball ProGUESTus: Giving Up the PED Guessing Game

Having watched Chris Davis annihilate baseballs over the course of a series, it is hard not to look at his jump from a poor man's Adam Dunn to an oil sheikh's Adam Dunn, and not wonder whether he had some "help." But are those speculations fair to a player? Former major leaguer Max Kepler says no. Kepler, whose muscle-bound frameDia often led to suspicions that he used PEDs during his playing career, attributes his strength to childhood insecurities about being too thin. "Those echoes of childhood neuroses drove me to an obsessive quest for muscle," Kepler said. "I did pull-ups on dugout ledges, always leery of the former absence of size in my back. And that muscle, in the era in which I played, meant that I would be suspected, without evidence or reason, of using steroids."

Signs of weakness: Flaws that could derail NL contenders | The Strike Zone - SI.com

Jay Jaffe identifies the flaws that could prevent each NL contender from winning it all. You can probably guess the Diamondbacks' weakness:

"The rotation has just two pitchers who have made a full complement of starts, and the considerable depth with which the team entered the season has been squandered by injuries and the ineffectiveness of established veterans like Trevor Cahill (4.78 ERA) and Brandon McCarthy (4.84), the questionable trade of Ian Kennedy to the Padres on July 31 and the underperformance of prospect Tyler Skaggs (5.12 ERA in seven starts)."

Marginalia

Arizona Diamondbacks uniforms ranked among MLB's worst ArizonaSports.com

Paul Lukas of Uni-Watch.com is not a fan of the Snakes' skins. Lukas slotted the Diamondbacks in at 27 in his MLB uniform power rankings, saying that the current uniforms are "bad enough to make a fella nostalgic for their original purple and teal design." While I wish the stylized "A" logo would permanently replace the snake-eating-its-tail "D" the team currently favors, I don't hate the new jersey. What about you? Would you rather be purple and teal again?