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Hope you're having a good festive season, and Santa is bringing you everything you want. Unless you're a Dodgers fan, of course, in which case I hope you have coal-fired central heating so can make use of your gift... We've taken some time off from the SnakePit Towers marathon viewing of the entire Godfather trilogy, to bring you your regularly scheduled daily verse in our seasonal count-up, I guess.
We have thunderpumpkin87 to thank for today's entry, as he bravely struggled past the traumas of modern technology, and submitted two versions, both of which turned red. We will take the one un-altered by his phone:
Six seasons of Greinke
We can but hope that this is, indeed, what we get, because if he does indeed play out his entire contract with Arizona, that would tend to suggest that Zack Greinke is pitching well, and the Diamondbacks are also doing a good job of contending. It would also put Greinke into a fairly elite club, as there are currently exactly 20 players who have appeared in six or more different seasons for the Arizona Diamondbacks - although none of them are currently with the club. The most recent members of the six-year group were Miguel Montero and Gerardo Parra, who both had their last seasons with Arizona in 2014.
Montero's trade means he failed to become the first ever 10-year Diamondback, his career ending at nine, running from 2006-2014. Randy Johnson and Luis Gonzalez both were here for eight years, and there were four players (Chris Young, Stephen Drew, Brandon Webb and Chris Snyder) who had seven seasons for the Diamondbacks. While the six-year players include both names you'd expect - Justin Upton, Chad Tracy, Craig Counsell - there are others I was surprised to see there. Robby Hammock, Edgar Gonzalez and Mike Koplove all outlasted any of the current Diamondbacks' roster.
That should change come Opening Day 2016, however, as we will probably see a full hand of new members in the six-season club. Hovering on the brink currently, with five years service for Arizona, are Josh Collmenter, Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Hill, Daniel Hudson and Brad Ziegler, all of whom are likely to be part of the roster for next season. With Goldie being under team control through at least 2019, there seems a good chance he will at least match Miggy - and if he ends up being the first 10-year Diamondback, I don't think many of us would have too many complaints about that!
But for the period 1999-2015, though it might be fun to go through every team, and see who their longest serving player is, and also how many players they have with seven or more seasons service. Here's the list of all 30. Note that players must have appeared in at least one game for a season to "count", so if they were on the DL for the entire year, it will not be included in their time with the team.
- Arizona Diamondbacks: Miguel Montero (9 seasons), 7 players with 7+ years.
- Atlanta Braves: Chipper Jones (15), 9 players
- Baltimore Orioles: Brian Roberts (13), 13 players
- Boston Red Sox: Tim Wakefield + Jason Varitek (14), 16 players
- Chicago Cubs: Kerry Wood (12), 10 players
- Chicago White Sox: Paul Konerko (16), 13 players
- Cincinnati Reds: Brandon Phillips (10), 16 players
- Cleveland Indians: Travis Hafner (10), 15 players
- Colorado Rockies: Todd Helton (16), 12 players
- Detroit Tigers: Brandon Inge (12), 14 players
- Houston Astros: Lance Berkman (12), 10 players
- Kansas City Royals: Mike Sweeney (10), 9 players
- Los Angeles Angels: Garret Anderson (11), 21 players
- Los Angeles Dodgers: Andre Ethier (10), 12 players
- Miami Marlins: Four players (8); most recently, Ricky Nolasco, 9 players
- Milwaukee Brewers: Rickie Weeks (11), 8 players
- Minnesota Twins: Joe Mauer (12), 23 players
- New York Mets: David Wright (12), 10 players
- New York Yankees: Derek Jeter (17), 18 players
- Oakland A's: Eric Chavez (13), 9 players
- Philadelphia Phillies: Jimmy Rollins (15), 14 players
- Pittsburgh Pirates: Jack Wilson (9), 11 players
- San Diego Padres: Trevor Hoffman (11), 10 players
- San Francisco Giants: Matt Cain (11), 15 players
- Seattle Mariners: Ichiro Suzuki (12), 9 players
- St. Louis Cardinals: Yadier Molina (12), 11 players
- Tampa Bay Rays: Ben Zobrist + Carl Crawford (9), 10 players
- Texas Rangers: Michael Young (13), 12 players
- Toronto Blue Jays: Vernon Wells + Roy Halladay (12), 14 players
- Washington Nationals: Ryan Zimmerman (11), 11 players
As you can see, Arizona and the two Florida franchises are the only teams without a ten-year player since 1998, and the D-backs also have fewest seven-year players of any franchise in the majors. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not this is a good thing!
On the sixth day of Christmas, the D-backs gave to me...
Six years of Greinke...
Five Goldy dingers...
Four falling chicken tenders...
Three free tacos...* [* terms and conditions apply]
Two gold gloves...
and a Corbin with a strike three!
If you can pry yourself off the couch, here's what we're looking at for the next verse: "Seven swans a-swimming." Maybe something involving the Chase Field pool? I dunno...