Snake Bytes, 6/9: Is there a draft in here?

Recaps

[FOX Sports] Dodgers go deep on D-backs' Rubby De La Rosa, continue trend - "We haven't been able to get (the starting pitchers) that deep, but they have been giving us a chance to win," manager Chip Hale told reporters. "I thought tonight, tonight was the one night where Rubby just didn't give us a shot. We're in that situation here where we're trying to win games and trying to develop guys along the way. We're just going to keep working."

[dbacks.com] De La Rosa hit hard as D-backs drop opener - After the Dodgers put together three straight singles in the first inning for a run, D-backs pitching coach Mike Harkey made an early mound visit. De La Rosa retired the next eight hitters. But in the fourth, after the first three Dodgers reached base, Harkey went out again. This time, an Andre Ethier RBI single, and Rollins' three-run homer followed to complete a five-run inning. "I just told him to bear down a little more, and make better pitches," Harkey said. "This has kind of been his M/O in his bad starts."

[AZ Central] Ex-Diamondbacks pitcher Mike Bolsinger shuts down former team - Diamondbacks hitters said they didn't notice anything fundamentally different on Monday night compared to the pitcher who struggled in 52 1/3 innings in the majors last season. "He was just commanding it," A.J. Pollock said. "You look at him stuff-wise, he's kind of a (Josh) Collmenter-type of pitcher. He's got that overhand, deceptive motion. Pollock said Bolsinger was frustrating Diamondbacks' hitters, something he recalls Bolsinger occasionally doing to opposing lineups last season.

[Arizona Sports] De La Rosa pummeled - One of the few highlights of the D-backs' offense was A.J. Pollock's sixth-inning double off Bolsinger, which drove in two. The center fielder's 13 doubles are tied with Paul Goldschmidt for the team lead, and his 27 RBI are tied for second with David Peralta. A day after Collmenter took the team lead for home runs allowed, De La Rosa took it right back, giving up his 13th and 14th homers of the year. His ERA ballooned to 5.84 with the forgettable outing.

Draft reactions and other team news

[Arizona Sports] Swanson 'perfect fit' for Arizona Diamondbacks - Scouting director Deric Ladnier said, "We fully expect him to... march his way through our minor league system and be doing the same thing for the Arizona Diamondbacks in a timely fashion." But how soon? "That's always tough to say," DeJon Watson said. "We don't foresee him starting in the Arizona Rookie League by any stretch of the imagination. He'll need a little down time post-College World Series and then we'll sit down and we'll map out a plan."

[dbacks.com] D-backs pick Swanson as Draft's top prize - Ladnier and senior vice president of baseball operations De Jon Watson had pretty much agreed on the selection of Swanson a month ago, but out of respect for the process, they allowed everyone to have their say in the team's Draft room over the past 10 days. "As we whittled it down, we basically had the same type of support that he and I had as we decided that this is our pick," Ladnier said. "And now everybody else supporting it [makes it] a perfect pick for the organization."

[AZ Central] Diamondbacks take Dansby Swanson with No. 1 pick in MLB draft - At 6:02 p.m. local time in Champaign, Ill., Swanson's Commodores punched their ticket to the College World Series with a 4-2 win over Illinois. He and his teammates dogpiled each other on the field as Swanson's family ran down from the stands. Then at 6:13 p.m., Swanson watched on an iPhone as the Arizona Diamondbacks selected him with the first pick of the 2015 MLB First-Year Player Draft. Swanson said in a conference call with reporters. "This day definitely couldn't have been scripted any better."

[FOX Sports] Diamondbacks take Vanderbilt shortstop Swanson with 1st pick - "He's a guy that stays in the middle of the diamond, and major league shortstops are very difficult to find," Ladnier said. "The other part of it is, the intangibles this player brings to the field every day. He has the character. He has the makeup. He's a winner. All the things that you want to build an organization with. It's one of those things as a scout or a scouting director that you are trying to check the boxes, and he was filling out all the boxes."

[dbacks.com] D-backs draft TCU lefty Young in Round 2 - In 16 games (15 starts) this year, the 6-foot-2, 205 pound Young is 9-2 with a 2.31 ERA and 91 strikeouts in 89 2/3 innings. "Big, strong, durable," Ladnier said of Young. "Probably pitches with an average fastball, plus slider, plus feel for a changeup and command of the zone. He is a guy that we feel like we can get into the system and could quickly get through it because of his ability to throw strikes, his size, his durability, and once again, he's a proven winner."

[FOX Sports] D-backs take TCU's Young in second round - "This is one of those where you watch the draft board and kind of sweat it out," Ladnier said, "because the history of college lefties in really good programs, they have a tendency to go off (the road) really quick. We were just sitting there hoping he would be there... He's a starter, absolutely. We don't look at him as reliever. If you wanted to maybe try to get him to the big leagues quicker, I guess you could because has been a reliever before. But our intention will be as a starter."

[AZ Central] Shoulder a factor in Owings' slow start - After undergoing surgery to repair the labrum in his left shoulder in the offseason, Owings made a change to his swing upon arriving at spring training. Instead of letting go with one hand in his follow-through, he's keeping both hands on the bat as a way of easing the stress on his shoulder. "I feel like it's been a day-to-day adjustment, just trying to make adjustments with my swing, just trying to get comfortable," he said. "I feel like I'm not as consistent as I have been in the past with my bat path and it's always something you're trying to work on."

And, elsewhere...

[Boston Globe] Some real characters can be one key to MLB success - A National League scout recalls receiving a phone call last season from a scout from another team. The conversation went something like this: "The Royals signed Raul Ibanez. Why would they do it? He has nothing left." The other scout responded, "You watch." Ibanez may only have hit .188, but the veteran brought that team together. The Royals lost to the Giants in the World Series, but it was another lesson learned for baseball executives. It’s not all about the numbers.

[USA Today] Century-old legal principle may limit Red Sox's liability to injured fan - "What it says is because baseball is America's national pastime, we are all presumed to have certain knowledge about the likelihood that objects can fly off the field into the stands," says attorney Steve Adelman. "The law imposes a duty on fans to take reasonable precautions for their own safety. The legal effect of that is what's called 'assumption of risk'. Under assumption of risk doctrine, which is an old doctrine, if somebody is even 1% at fault for their own injuries, they are not entitled to any legal recovery whatsoever as a matter of law."

[Orange County Register] Angels pitcher Huston Street is baseball's cerebral closer - A conversation with Street – about anything from pitching to sabermetrics to real estate to the impact of smart phones on society – will not likely end quickly. "What we’ve been debating most recently are defensive metrics," said Street, making a statement you won’t hear from many major leaguers. "The big debate is what is the true value of all those metrics? Do they actually predict future success or do they just mirror what is obvious?"