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Snake Bytes, 9/29: It's the final countdown...

I hope you enjoyed the last day without a Diamondbacks game. The next such break will last about five months...

By Jim McLennan

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Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
Team News

[AZ Central] Diamondbacks' top pick Dansby Swanson shakes off scary HBP - Dansby Swanson remembers the immediate aftermath – standing by home plate, blood pouring from his face. What he doesn’t remember, he said, is the pitch itself, the moment of impact, the painful introduction to professional baseball. That might be for the best. Swanson, the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft, needed 14 stitches and suffered a concussion when he was hit in the face by a pitch during a simulated game in July. It was his first game action – his first at-bat – as a member of the Diamondbacks organization.

[AZ Central] Cutter a new weapon for Chacin in 2015 - Next year really is the key with the right-hander. He’ll be another year removed from his shoulder issues, and plans to throw plenty of four-seamers in the offseason to try and goose his velocity. He still thinks the heater and his sinker will be his primary combination, but it won’t hurt to have an effective cutter to use. "Hopefully next year is going to be a really good year," Chacin said. "I’m really excited about next year."

[dbacks.com] Swanson, Bradley play in instructional league - "Right now, he's moving forward with whatever we're putting in front of him," senior vice president of baseball operations De Jon Watson said [of Swanson]. "We're cognizant of how much baseball he's played. He did have some down time after the college season ended. Right now, he looks good and feels good, and there were some things on both sides of the ball he needed to tweak a little."

[MiLB] D-backs' Austin Byler suspended 50 games - D-backs All-Star first baseman Austin Byler received a 50-game suspension on Monday after both testing positive for an amphetamine Byler, 22, was Arizona's 11th-round pick in this year's Draft out of Nevada and helped lead Rookie-level Missoula to the league crown earlier this month. Byler's suspension comes four days after Missoula shortstop Kal Simmons, also a key part of the Osprey's title run, was suspended for 50 games for using amphetamines on Sept. 24. Matt Railey, an outfielder for Missoula, was also suspended for amphetamines on Feb. 23.

And. elsewhere...

[MLBlogs.com] Jerry Dipoto Named Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations - DiPoto was the Diamondbacks Vice President of Player Personnel from 2006-10, and was our interim General Manager for the second half of the 2010 season, after Josh Byrnes was fired.

[MLB] Piscotty injured, exits game - [NSFL] Scary, scary moment during the Cardinals game when Stephen Piscotty was poleaxed in a collision with team-mate Peter Bourjos, after Bourjos' diving play in the outfield. Seems to have been a season for that kind of thing. This is right up there with the Archie Bradley incident - and, fortunately, there is similar good news, with Piscotty apparently/hopefully suffering no permanent damage, according to immediate tests.

[CSN Mid-Atlantic] Rizzo gives his side of Papelbon/Harper punishments - GM Mike Rizzo justified the Nationals' decision to suspend Jonathan Papelbon four games and bench Bryce Harper one game Monday evening, citing the disparity in punishments between the two players as "equitable" given their roles in Sunday's dugout fight. "You could see, by the type of discipline we placed on both players, which we thought was weighed the most," the Nationals general manager said after Monday's home finale against the Reds. "We felt that they were both equal and equitable ways to handle the situation."

And, related...

But, yet... [FOX Sports] Players overwhelmingly support Papelbon in Sunday's Harper Affair - It’s easy to lose sight of what the game was like the further you get away from it, so I polled well more than a dozen former and current players I know about what happened Sunday in Washington. Not one fully backed Bryce Harper. Not one.

Still alive... The San Francisco Giants did the hard part in the frst game of their series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, getting the lead against Zack Greinke. But the Giants then blew it in the ninth inning, before recovering to walk off winners in the 12th. It was the fourth straight defeat for the Dodgers, and keeps their magic number at one, with three more chances to clinch against and eliminate the reigning World Series champions in San Francisco. Los Angeles used 25 players in the game, 17 position players and eight pitchers.

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