Snake Bytes, 3/15: Ides of March edition

Team news

[Arizona Sports] Greinke shows first signs of mortality this spring - "A lot more bad pitches than I want," Greinke said in a lengthy interview session after the game Monday. "Fastball was coming out pretty good, the location just wasn’t that great. Same thing with the slider and change." Kyle Seager took Greinke’s high fastball over the right field fence as Seattle went ahead, 3-2. "That was a tough pitch to hit,’ Greinke said. "Looked pretty good doing it, didn’t seem like it was lucky. I wouldn’t say it was a good pitch, it was just a tough pitch to hit."

[dbacks.com] A.J. Pollock, Yasmany Tomas nearing returns - Tomas said he hit Monday on the back fields, and Pollock gave two thumbs up when asked about his elbow. Asked when he might be ready to play, Pollock added: "Ahhhh, I don't know. Ask Chip." OK, here we go. Hale on Pollock: "Pollock is going to start to get on it, do with more with his arm. He threw a little bit. He's been tracking a lot. So I would say with him by the weekend, hopefully next Monday, he should be in games." Hale on Tomas: "Tomas hit today again for the second day. We're off tomorrow, it's a scheduled off-day. He'll get back on it and, hopefully, he'll be able to play on Thursday or Friday."

[Arizona Sports] Socrates Brito Rookie of the Year candidate? "I think he has all the makings to be a really good player, like a rookie of the year caliber player if he gets that opportunity," ESPN MLB Analyst Aaron told Arizona Sports 98.7 FM’s Doug and Wolf on Monday. "I really think the light went on for him in the second half of the season. He played in the Futures Game and he really tore it up in the second half of the season... I think he has the chance to be a good hitter, but defensively there’s versatility there. He runs very well so he’s kind of like that all-around player".

[FOX Sports] Hale disputes SS Nick Ahmed as slow to adjust - On Sunday, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal cited a "Diamondbacks official" saying Ahmed is slow to embrace adjustments. Hale on Monday said that was not accurate. "That bothered me. I don't know where that came from. I think because Nick Ahmed is a very educated kid, University of Connecticut, (and) he's extremely competitive, he sometimes comes off to people that he's not willing to make adjustments. He is, like most kids today -- any of us who have kids know if you tell them to do something you better have a good reason for it. And he's educated; he knows the game of baseball very well.

[TKB] Nick Ahmed Not Stubborn, Just Convicted In His Approach - "I think I’m convicted in the things that I know I need to do," Ahmed said. "If somebody takes that the wrong way, that’s probably their problem. I get along really well with all the coaches here, and I’m trying to learn every single day. If you look at me as player from two or three years ago, you’ll see I’m quite different than I was back down. Definitely not resistant to change."

[Examiner] Hale experiments with pitchers hitting eighth - "We’ll try this, and see how it goes," Hale said. "Once the season begins, we’ll likely pick our spots and see who hits eighth the best and in a given situation." For his part, Greinke said, after hitting eighth against Seattle Monday, that position in the batting order was not an issue. The larger picture, he said, is team betterment. "That doesn’t matter to me," Greinke said of hitting eighth. "I’ve done it a few times. I’ll hit in any position that give us the best chance to win."

[Inside the 'Zona] Refocusing the Race for Second Bullpen Lefty - If "spring training" means "roster battles," then "roster battles" means "second lefty reliever competition" almost as much. You may not end up having too many conversations about it this year, but there is news, and new analysis to be done — and how things have shaped up so far sheds some light on other, bigger ticket questions this spring. Today, the D-backs reassigned Daniel Gibson and Scott Rice to minor league camp, telling us an extreme ground ball plan isn’t something the D-backs will adhere to slavishly.

And, elsewhere...

[FOX Sports] The 10 most underrated players in baseball - 7. David Peralta, A couple other candidates from the Diamondbacks' 2015 outfield could have fit here -- A.J. Pollock or Ender Inciarte, now with Atlanta -- but Peralta is a classically underrated performer. His backstory is part of the reason... Now projected to be Arizona's everyday right fielder, Peralta should be looked upon as an All-Star candidate entering 2016.

[ESPN] Where have all the stolen bases gone? - The number of stolen bases across baseball last year was historically low. In 2015, players stole 2,505 bases, the lowest total since 1974. One American League executive said that the significant increase in information available for game preparation has played a huge role in curtailing base stealing. Video is better, data is more revealing, pitchers are more aware of their delivery time to home plate and the confluence of information has allowed teams to shrink the window of time available to steal, thus making it much harder for players to get good reads and jumps.

[PostBulletin.com:] Baseball: Suzuki so close to 3,000 hits — if he can get enough at-bats - He denies that chasing 3,000 is the motivation to keep going, saying he plays because he loves the game. But the countdown will add some uncharacteristic drama this season for the perennial also-ran Marlins. "It would be an unbelievable great thing," Suzuki said. "But I'm a fourth outfielder. If I was a starter heading into this year it would be different. I could say in two months I should be there. You don't know what kind of opportunities I'll have."