SnakeBytes, 4/18: Undefeated edition

Team news

[FOX Sports] Diamondbacks have reason(s) to believe - "We know we have the ability," Ziegler said. 'We believe in ourselves. At some point, something is going to click. Then it is going to click again and click again, and all of a sudden we get on a roll. "But there is a lot of work to be done in the short term. Every single guy has to step up and play better than they have, or it's not going to get any better. It's a long season, and every team is going to hit some rough patches here and there. Hopefully this is the biggest one we hit and it's right at the beginning of the year."

[ArizonaSports] Hall: Losses mounting because players are pressing - "These mistakes are happening because these guys are putting so much pressure on themselves, they don't want to lose, they want to win," Derrick Hall said Thursday. "They're trying to get out of this, and again it's magnified because of where it takes place in the season -- right at the beginning of the year. Your team that wins the West is probably going to have a six-game losing streak during the season. Most teams will. But it's the ugly way we're doing it and it's the timing of it all right now. It's an avalanche, and it's got to stop. We've got to stop the bleeding."

[AZ Central] 3B prospect Brandon Drury could be bright spot in Upton trade - The Diamondbacks may have something in Drury, a 21-year-old beginning his first season at High-A Visalia. Last year at Low-A South Bend, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Drury hit .302/.362/.500 with 15 home runs and a Midwest League-high 51 doubles. Fourteen games into the 2014 season with Visalia, he's hitting .267/.323/.500 with three homers and 12 RBIs. "There's some guys you think have a different look in their eye," said Mike Bell, the Diamondbacks' minor-league director. "They have a belief, a genuine confidence in themselves. He has that."

[AZ Central] GM Kevin Towers to blame for Diamondbacks' mess - "I think you have to look at the people who are your leaders and their overall body of work," Kendrick said. "Kevin's got a real significant body of work. Most of his career he's had real success and has had success here. We're doing what you'd expect. We'll continue to evaluate the results. He's probably more disappointed in the results than anyone."

[SBNation.com] Diamondbacks disaster in the desert - A rough start has only accentuated the issues that were already present in Phoenix with the struggling Diamondbacks.

[AP] D-backs off to worst start in franchise history - Struggling in all aspects and awful at home, the Diamondbacks are off to the worst start in franchise history, and morale in the desert has hit rock-bottom. "You get worn out, not only when you’re not performing well by yourself, but when the whole team is doing it," starting pitcher Brandon McCarthy said. "(When) everybody around you is in that same boat, the team isn’t winning, and nothing positive is happening, you don’t really have anything to hang on to."

And, elsewhere

[FiveThirtyEight] What Arizona’s Rough Start Says About MLB (and the NFL and NBA) - MLB’s 162 games provide about as much information as a 27-game football season would (meaning the NFL’s 16-game slate is the equivalent of roughly a 98-game baseball season). That’s nothing compared to the NBA, whose 82-game schedule is equivalent to a 458-game baseball season!

[Beyond the Box Score] Early season records: predictors of making the postseason? - somewhat echoing what I looked at yesterday, BtBS examimes how well do good or bad early season records translate into making the playoffs?

[Voxxi] Yasiel Puig’s ties to the Zetas could spell disaster - How safe is Dodger Stadium for its fans, and could there be some violent repercussion there from how young Cuban star Yasiel Puig got to Los Angeles? The Los Angeles Times has posed that question this week in the wake of a magazine story reporting conclusively that Puig had been smuggled out of Cuba by members of the Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel to whom money may still be owed and that his life could be in jeopardy.

[NJ.com] Paterson's Hinchliffe Stadium celebrated as historic landmark - Home of the NY Black Yankees and the NY Cubans, two Negro League baseball teams, the outdoor stadium was officially designated a National Historic Landmark on Wednesday. [H/T Mrs. SnakePit]

[Baltimore Sun] Hopkins research uses math to solve baseball's scheduling riddles - A team of Johns Hopkins University researchers has developed a system that uses thousands of lines of computer code to satisfy all of a league's scheduling rules, and as many of the teams' requests and preferences as possible. The researchers have begun selling their services around the country and hope to be setting schedules for half of minor leagues affiliated with Major League Baseball by next spring;

And finally: I miss Adam Eaton