Arizona Diamondbacks select Mike Freeman, put Chris Herrmann on DL

Freeman, 28, will be making his Major League debut and wear No. 4. In 88 games at Reno, he hit .317 (108-for-341) with 17 doubles, 6 triples, 1 homer, 24 RBI, 38 walks, 11 stolen bases and a .798 OPS. In his last 30 games, he is hitting .352 (43-for-122) with 7 doubles, 2 triples, 7 RBI, 14 walks and 6 stolen bases. Freeman has spent the last 3 seasons at Reno and hit .315 (301-for-957) with 51 doubles, 18 triples, 5 homers, 90 RBI, 93 walks and 27 stolen bases in 272 games. Overall, he has spent parts of 7 seasons in the D-backs system since being selected in the 11th round of the 2010 Draft out of Clemson University.

Herrmann, 28, has set career highs in hits (42), average (.290), extra-base hits (15), RBI (28), on-base percentage (.350), slugging percentage (.503) and OPS (.853) in 54 games. He has played catcher (30 games), outfield (9 games) and infield (2 games).

It's been a long toil for Freeman. who has accumulated almost three thousand minor-league plate appearances since being selected in the 2010 draft. That was actually the second time Arizona had picked him, having also selected Freeman in the 36th round the previous year, when he didn't sign [he similarly failed to sign for the Padres, picked him out of high school, back in 2006, during the 41st round]. He isn't a name that has been mentioned very much, if at all, in terms of prospect status. He didn't even merit an "of note" mention in John Sickel's pre-season prospect list, nor was he to be found in John's top 60 list last winter. Yet, here we are.

Freeman has hit well over .300 with Reno, batting .315 in 272 games with the Aces, though we should bear in mind the usual disclaimers about stats there. He does seem a good replacement for Herrmann in that he is a super-utility guy: this year alone, he has played for Reno at first-base, second-base and all three outfield positions. With Tuffy Gosewisch already on the roster, we likely didn't need an additional catcher. Anyway, congratulations to him on finally making the show. Hopefully he can honor the #4 he'll be wearing: most recently it belonged to Jamie Romak but was also worn by other super-utilty guys, Cliff Pennington, David Eckstein and Craig Counsell.