SnakeBytes: Off-day edition

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• [AZ Central] For Montero, moving past 2013 key to avoiding another bad year - "In years before, I’ve (produced)," Montero said. "So why didn’t anybody say anything back then? Now, all of a sudden, we’re looking for something? It was nothing out there. It was just a bad year, period.. The good thing is we start from zero. That’s the fun part."
• [Fox Sports] Putz puts camaraderie in D-backs' clubhouse - "He's everything that you want in a veteran guy," left-handed reliever Matt Reynolds said. "He's there for young guys when the first come up. He's teammates with everybody on the team. He's friendly. If something is going wrong, anybody can go to him and ask him, 'What do you see?' and he's going to give you an honest opinion. He's one of those guys you feel confident turning to when things are going good and things are going bad. When you are new, he is one of the first guys there."
• [cardsconclave.com] Playing Pepper 2014: Arizona Diamondbacks - Myself, Jeff from 'Diary of a Diehard' and Tom from 'Venom Strikes' each independently answered a set of questions from a Cards blogger, about the Diamondbacks off-season, and prospects this year.
• [AZ Central] No shortage of speed for the Arizona Diamondbacks - "It’s the best feeling in the world," said Campana. "Anytime you can put a little pressure on the pitcher, the catcher, or the defense, it helps. Even if it’s not me stealing a bag, if it’s a pitcher getting nervous and throwing a fastball right down the middle to Goldy or Aaron Hill, that helps just as much."

Less

• [Fangraphs] The Worst Transactions of the 2014 Off-Season - We own numbers 6 and 7.
• [MLB.com] As new rule nears, Angels practice defending plate - Emphasizing that no rule has been set, Scioscia explained that the way he understands it, a runner will be able to slide through the catcher. But he still has questions. "If the catcher has to give you a lane, why would you have to slide through him?" Scioscia asked. "Now, if there's plays that lead to some incidental contact, those have to be outlined to what's acceptable and what isn't."
• [MSN] Balfour defines Australian baseball - When the Major League Baseball roadshow arrives in Sydney next month, Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon McCarthy has a pre-conceived impression of what's going to greet him as he steps off the plane. And it's all thanks to Australia's most prominent US baseball export, Grant Balfour. "From playing with Grant, I expect that Australia will be a country full of people who walk around and just swear for no random reason, all day long," says McCarthy.
• [mlb.com] Heath Bell likes idea of pitching for a contender - Bell seems rather disgruntled about his time here. "In September they stopped using me. It wasn't because they just wanted to use the kids. They were using me in the eighth inning and then all of a sudden I was pitching in really weird innings... We didn't really see eye to eye after awhile. I always felt like I was trying to swim upstream... When the catcher and the pitcher really don't see eye to eye it's hard to go out there and have a really good game. They wanted me to pitch in a way I'd never pitched before."

Not at all

• [WSJ.com] Why Baseball Should Become a Winter Olympic Sport - "The reasoning is simple. The IOC needs extra sports for the Winter Games far more than it needs them for the Summer Games. And February is a much easier time of year for Major League Baseball to allow players to participate than August." Well, that's certainly thinking out of the box...
• [Seattle Times] The forgotten prospect: GM Jack Zduriencik has 'no expectations' for Jesus Montero - "Montero came in heavier than ever. He even admitted it, making the regrettable line: "after winter ball, all I did was eat." After each season, a player is given a target weight they are expected to come in at for the following season. According to sources, Montero has never once met that target weight since joining the Mariners. This year he came in 40 pounds over the weight the Mariners wanted him to come in at."
• It's not just him. [ESPN] Yasiel Puig too heavy in camp? Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly acknowledged the team has some concerns about Yasiel Puig's conditioning. Mattingly said Puig showed up at camp weighing 251 pounds, 26 more than he weighed at the end of the regular season. "We don't feel it's going to be a problem, but we're paying attention to it, put it that way."
  
• And finally, some rare color video of Satchel Paige. Hang on, that sounds...odd...