SnakeBytes: DownUnderGate edition

Greinke blows a didgeridon't

• [CBSSports.com] Zack Greinke's comments not sitting well in Australia - Yeah, I get the feeling the D-backs are going to have the support of the home fans down under. Always liked Australians. :)
• [ESPN] Officials upset at Zack Greinke - Damage control, much? "Zack has this endearing, contrarian quality to him that we all know and love about him," Dodgers president Stan Kasten said. "But my problem right now is trying to make room for all the people that want to go -- players, family, front-office people. As an organization, we couldn't be more excited about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
• [ArizonaSports] Gibson: We're viewing the Australia trip as a positive - Compare and contrasy #1: "Spring training is always long. It gives us another challenge, yeah. I'm not sure how the Dodgers have processed all that, but I think we've kind of viewed it in a positive view. We should. It is exciting. We are honored and humbled to go over there and represent Major League Baseball."
• [dbacks.com] D-backs appear excited for Australia trip - Compare and contrast #2: Mark Trumbo: "I think it's going to be a cool thing. That's just personal. There are going to be some tougher things that come with it, there's going to be a lot of travel and some adjusting, but I think more than anything it's just cool to be able to bring the game over there." Paul Goldschmidt: "I'm not going to comment on anything [Greinke] said. But I'm looking forward to going over there and play. I've said that since last year when it got announced."

Other news

• [dbacks.com] McCarthy to start D-backs' spring opener - "Brandon McCarthy will start Arizona's Cactus League opener against the Dodgers at Salt River Fields, while Bronson Arroyo and Randall Delgado will start Thursday's split-squad games. Arroyo will pitch against the Cubs at their new Spring Training facility and Delgado starts against the Dodgers in Glendale." Early days, but perhaps it's a hint that McCarthy won't be starting in Australia.
  
• [AZ Central] Chavez content not playing every game - "I don’t need to play every day,. I don’t need the spotlight. I just want to win. That’s the bottom line... .A lot of teams wanted me to play first. I don’t like first base. They wanted me to play first and they were throwing out like 400-450 at-bats. I was kind of thrown back a little bit."
• [dbacks.com] Australia Series causes D-backs to face unique roster rules - "With the D-backs starting their season against the Dodgers on March 22 in Australia before resuming play March 31, with five exhibition games sandwiched in between, the rules for finalizing their roster are a little different."
• [FOX Sports] Success hasn't changed D-backs' Corbin - "He's very competitive," Gibson said. "He trusts his stuff. He continues to advance his game, continues to advance his tools he uses.. How can you mechanically do that? A lot of that starts here, up top... He lost it a little at the end of the year. Why? What you work on now is, 'How do I correct it?' You try to find keys, establish keys with your teammates and yourself, so when you get a little bit off, someone can make that suggestion and it regenerates that feel and the mechanics so you can execute your pitches."

Elsewhere

• [AP] Baseball set to announce plate-collision rule - Baseball’s new guidelines regarding home plate collisions will be released Monday. Joe Torre said, ‘‘If nothing else on that play, we want to eliminate those very vicious hits where you target the catcher as opposed to home plate.’’ Rays manager Joe Maddon said there doesn’t appear a radical change to existing guidelines, noting catchers still will be able to block the plate if the ball arrives in time. ‘‘The general spirit of it is you don’t want a collision intentionally initiated by the base runner. That’s what it sounds like to me,’’ Maddon said.
• [Fangraphs] How Teams are Allocating Their 2014 Payrolls - Despite a franchise high payroll, estimated at $108 million, the D-backs will only rank 12th this year, and third in the NL West. Here's some more breakdown of where franchises are spending their money in 2014.
• [ESPN] Jhoulys Chacin of Colorado Rockies shut down with sore shoulder - "Jhoulys Chacin, the team's top right-handed starter a year ago, was shut down Sunday because of inflammation in his throwing shoulder. He's scheduled to undergo an MRI on Monday." I'd like to thank the Rockies for showing up to spring training, and suggest they should probably start preparing for their 2015 campaign.
• [Star-Telegram[ Ron Washington squares up to defend his bunting - Baseball’s new analytics will tell you that the sacrifice bunt is the most self-defeating tradition in baseball. In fact, a member of the spring training media tried to tell Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington just that Sunday morning. "I think if they try to do that, they’re going to be telling me how to [bleep] manage," Washington said. "That’s the way I answer that [bleep] question. They can take the analytics on that and shove it up their [bleep][bleep]."